Bank compliance with national transaction account standards: Evidence from a mid-western metropolitan area

Increasing the fully banked population is related to the availability of affordable bank accounts. This study investigates the factors that are associated with bank response to voluntary national bank account standards for an affordable transaction account. We also examine the degree to which account information is available from bank websites. Account feature data were collected from public bank websites and bank tellers (N = 108) in a mid-western metropolitan area. Results suggest that most banks offer an account that meets the majority of the standards. On average, bank websites are missing information about eight (44%) of the voluntary standards. There is weak evidence to suggest that bank asset size is associated both with the number of standards met and the numbers of standards about which a viewer cannot assess from information on their website. Practice and policy implications of the voluntary standards on the availability of affordable transaction accounts are discussed.