Banks and credit unions need to "find ways to innovate their services" to prevent the financially-stressed from turning to cheque cashing stores in times of need and digging themselves into deeper holes in the process.
That's one of the conclusions three UNBC researchers set out in a report prepared for the Aboriginal Business Development Centre on "fringe financial institutions, the unbanked and the precariously banked."
The authors, economics professor Paul Bowles and researchers Keely Dempsey and Trevor Shaw, also suggest creation over the longer term of "new institutions designed specifically to meet the needs of low income individuals."
