'Underbanked' Households More Likely to Own Crypto: FDIC

American households that rely on services like check cashing and payday loans to make ends meet are more likely to hold cryptocurrencies, with all the risks they bring, than those who have more access to traditional banks, according to a government report released Tuesday.

The report from the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation also showed that one in eight shoppers using buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services had made a payment late or missed it on at least one purchase.

The findings are contained in the latest periodic survey of "underbanked" and "unbanked" households: those with little or no access to traditional banking.

The FDIC surveyed 30,000 households in June 2023 as part of a series of surveys begun in the wake of the global financial crisis that began in 2007.

The share of households deemed "unbanked," or those that did not use any checking or savings accounts, has fallen by about half since 2011 to 4.2%, or 5.6 million households, according to the survey.

But large disparities remain among different groups, with poorer Black, Hispanic, Native American, Alaska Native and single-parent households, or those with working-age members who are disabled, substantially more likely to be unbanked.

Such households were also much more likely to be underbanked, meaning they had access to bank accounts but had also met their needs over the prior 12 months by borrowing from pawn shops and title lenders, or used check cashing, among other services.

Among all U.S. households, 14.2%, or 19 million, were underbanked. More than 6% of these held digital currencies, compared to 4.8% of households with full access to traditional banking.

Nearly one in 10 underbanked households also used increasingly popular BNPL services, compared to only 3% of households considered fully banked.

Nearly 13% of BNPL users reported missing payments or paying late, a figure that rose to more than 20% among the underbanked.