Stacy Towles with Eloy Villafranca, Director of Bank on California

Last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger gathered the partners and leaders of Bank On California and announced that the statewide goal of opening 100,000 bank accounts had been reached in half the time.  The Bank On program is a partnership between banks, community organizations, and local governments to bring people into the financial mainstream.  By connecting people with bank services and critical financial education, the program gives ‘unbanked’ households access to mainstream financial products and services, where they can begin saving, build a credit history, gain access to lower-cost sources of credit, and invest for their future.

Currently, millions of families lack basic financial services such as a checking account – in fact one in five do not have one -  and nearly half of California households do not have a savings account. Having a bank account provides access to money-saving financial services such as ATMs, online bill pay and better access to credit – tools that will allow Californians to keep more of their paychecks.

The governor went on to say, “California was the first state in the nation to implement a program like this, and already we’ve reached our goal of opening 100,000 accounts in half the time – saving unbanked Californians millions of dollars. As the program continues to expand, I encourage all Californians who are unbanked to use this program to save money and build their financial security.”

Locally, United Way’s Stacy Towles is Program Coordinator for Bank on Oakland.  She was recognized for her work and given a Leadership Award for “opening access to mainstream banking products and services to low- and moderate-income households.” United Way of the Bay Area was one of the first organizations  to support the Bank On effort and is recognized as a key partner in the coalition.

Some of what she’s helped to accomplish with Bank on Oakland include:

• opening 6,545 new accounts since April 2009

• training 1,100 people at financial education workshops since February 2009

• working with 12 participating financial institutions in Oakland, with 55 branch locations throughout the city

Congratulations to Stacy and to all the partners across the state helping move low- and moderate-income households towards greater financial stability.