First-Ever Local Unbanked Population Data Tool Released

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), with support from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and in partnership with the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment, the National League of Cities and the New America Foundation, has launched a new-and-improved Bank On website.  JoinBankOn.org  uses PolicyMap (http://www.policymap.com) as its platform to offer a look into communities to see if banking resources are available.

JoinBankOn.org is the online home for the national community of Bank On initiatives, which are locally-led coalitions of government agencies, financial institutions and community organizations working to promote financial access for low- and moderate-income Americans.

Among the features offered on the site is Research Your Community (http://webtools.joinbankon.org/community/search), a tool that offers estimates and maps of the number of unbanked and underbanked households in your local community. This new tool allows users to:

• Download estimates of unbanked and underbanked households at the state, county, city, MSA and census tract levels.
• Download supplementary demographic data on at-risk populations.
• Print customized reports on financially underserved populations.

The interactive maps that are part of the website are powered by PolicyMap, an online data analysis and mapping tool (http://www.policymap.com/online-mapping-tools/index.html). PolicyMap allows users to generate maps, tables and reports based on over 15,000 data indicators. Using Geographic Information Systems (http://www.policymap.com/) technology, PolicyMap offers key social and economic statistics for U.S. communities down to a neighborhood level. PolicyMap also offers custom widgets – embeddable versions of the site – to organizations like Bank On interested in tracking a particular issue.

"PolicyMap made it simple for us to share the extensive data we have on the unbanked and underbanked populations in America," explained Kasey Wiedrich, Senior Program Manager at CFED. "PolicyMap not only offered us a quick and easy platform to map our own data, but its embeddable interactive maps, allows us to share these maps with any user across the country.  Access to this data is particularly important to anyone working to develop effective strategies aimed at increasing financial access for those who may be living outside of the financial mainstream."

About TRF and PolicyMap

PolicyMap (www.policymap.com) is a service of The Reinvestment Fund, a nonprofit leader in financing neighborhood revitalization. As a fully web-based interactive map tool, PolicyMap empowers decision makers with better access to credible market and demographic data in an easy-to-use geographic information system. www.policymap.com

SOURCE PolicyMap