Millions of modest-income households in the U. S. currently turn to alternative financial services (AFS) outlets to meet their basic financial needs. Check-cashers, payday lenders, finance companies, pawnshops, rent-to-own stores and auto title lenders operate primarily to generate revenue and make a profit. With an increasing number of credit unions investigating how to help the underserved, the Filene Research Institute developed a program called REAL Solutions-Relevant, Effective, Asset-building and Loyalty-producing – to assist in efforts to reach out to new member populations. A newly-released study, REAL Solutions: Solving the Financial Service Needs of America’s Working Families, provides a progress report on the activities of credit unions involved in the REAL Solutions program. For more information on the REAL Solutions program you can visit http://filene.org/home/research/real.
The program is now the signature program of the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF), visit the www.ncuf.org
