Definition
The underbanked is a characteristic describing people or organizations who do not have sufficient access to mainstream financial services and products typically offered by retail banks and thus often deprived of banking services such as credit cards or loans. The underbanked are characterized by a strong reliance on non-traditional forms of finance and micro-finance often associated with disadvantaged and the poor, such as cheque cashers, loan sharks and pawnbrokers.
Underbanked
What is ‘Underbanked’
A situation where an underwriter of a new securities issue has been unsuccessful in getting other firms to become members of the underwriting group or syndicate. As a result, the security will not be sold to as many clients as had been desired.
Explaining ‘Underbanked’
An investment banker is underbanked when he or she is facing challenges in acquiring additional members for the underwriting group or syndicate for a new securities issue. If the originating investment banker is unable to find enough firms, he or she may not be able to underwrite the issue – and therefore would be unable to offer the security for sale.
Further Reading
- Exploring the factors affecting the adoption of mobile financial services among the rural under-banked – aisel.aisnet.org [PDF]
- Technology enabled financial inclusion and evidence-based policy for the underbanked: A study of remote Indigenous Australia – papers.ssrn.com [PDF]
- Exploring the factors affecting the adoption of mobile financial services among the rural under-banked and its implications for Micro-finance Institutions – aisel.aisnet.org [PDF]
- Banking participation in the United States: an analysis of unbanked and underbanked households – digitalcommons.unl.edu [PDF]
- Banking the Unbanked and Underbanked: RegTech as an Enabler for Financial Inclusion – onlinelibrary.wiley.com [PDF]
