Banking on wheels: Fifth Third and SpringFour are taking financial wellness for a spin
- Fifth Third has partnered with SpringFour on its Financial Empowerment Mobile (eBus), which brings banking products and financial health resources to underserved communities.
- The partnership and relaunch of the eBus comes after a year and a half work involving a diverse range of stakeholders across the bank.
Factors like disabilities, poor financial health, and a lack of bank branches in local neighborhoods can keep people out of the banking system. Currently 19 million households are considered underbanked in America, according to recent FDIC data. But what if a bank’s reach wasn’t static and centered around its physical branches, and instead, mobile and free to move into communities that are the least exposed to its services?
Fifth Third’s Financial Empowerment Mobile or the eBus is the bank’s attempt at flipping the script when it comes to customer engagement. The eBus is now in its 20th year of operation and has been “reimagined” for its launch on Fifth Third Day, May 3rd. The bus offers checking accounts, consultation pods, and digital stations where consumers can access financial health-focused resources by simply entering their zip code through an onboarding tool, provided by SpringFour, a social impact fintech that connects consumers with thousands of financial well being resources.
Understanding the underserved challenge
Some of the biggest challenges that Fifth Third sees in serving underserved communities is an overall lack of financial wellness, which can be further exacerbated by food insecurity, transportation challenges, and bank deserts which means that there isn’t a bank branch within a three mile radius, according to Aleta Young, vice president and corporate social responsibility strategies director at Fifth Third.
How Fifth Third is banking on wheels
The underserved challenge is a problem of distance between the bank and the consumer. This distance can be literal if there is no bank branch nearby but it can also be a distance between a customer’s current financial situation and financial stability, a destination they might reach if they have access to resources that help them save on food or gain employment.
To literally bring the bank to the people, Fifth Third’s eBus partners with community institutions in areas which are the least exposed to the bank’s presence in order to maximize participation.
