FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

The Treasury Department today announced that appropriations for fiscal year 2001 enacted to date provide $8 million to the Department for the First Accounts initiative. The initiative will fund pilot projects to increase the availability of basic financial services in urban centers and rural Native American areas that lack access to these services.

Despite the strong national economy, 10 million American families do not own a bank account - a basic passport to the mainstream economy," said Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers. "The First Accounts initiative will finance pilot strategies to help low- and moderate-income Americans benefit from the basic financial services that most of us take for granted."

Today, Treasury is publishing a Request for Information notice to solicit input from interested organizations on possible structures for First Accounts pilots. Through the First Accounts initiative, Treasury will support pilot partnerships between financial services providers and community organizations to provide the "unbanked" with access to low-cost accounts, ATMs and other electronic banking points, and financial literacy education. The initiative will build on the success of Treasury's EFT '99 campaign by reaching those lower-income families who do not receive federal payments but could nonetheless benefit from increased access to banking services.