FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

The Treasury Department today announced that it will award "First Accounts" grants totaling $8.35 million to 15 projects designed to help unbanked Americans open accounts at insured financial depository institutions.

"We were very pleased at the large number of high-quality and innovative proposals we received," said Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Sheila C. Bair. "Our hope is that these projects will serve as models for others in their efforts to reach the one in ten American households that are unbanked."

Grant recipients include nonprofit organizations, insured depository institutions, insured credit unions, a community development financial institution, a faith-based organization and a foundation. The 15 awardees, selected from among 231 applications from 38 states, have pledged that insured bank accounts will be opened by 35,400 unbanked people in 25 states, including California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The awardees will implement projects that provide financial literacy training, connect individuals to insured accounts, develop low- or no-cost products and services, and increase access to financial services through installation of automated teller machines. The projects focus on a wide variety of unbanked people, including youths, new entrants to the workforce, recent immigrants, residents of low-income communities, residents in rural areas, native Americans living on reservations, public housing residents and families using child care facilities.

The First Accounts program seeks to move a maximum number of unbanked low- and moderate-income individuals to a banked status with an insured depository institution through the development of financial products and services that can serve as replicable models in other communities without the need for ongoing public subsidies.

Attached is brief list of the awardees.

Additional information the First Accounts program and the 15 grants can be found at www.treas.gov/firstaccounts.