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The US retail financial services market is no stranger to innovation, for better or for worse. Wondering what innovations in this market look like? Consider adjustable-rate mortgages, the Community Reinvestment Act, payday loans, mobile banking technology, and the like. New services result from the shifting power between financial services providers, government regulators, and consumers—power dynamics help to explain how and where to intervene in the market. It also suggests that lower-income communities of color have to have a strategy for building power in order have a seat at the table that is equal to that which is held by the banking industry and government. Indeed, it is only when there has been power behind community-based innovations that these innovations have become widespread and have shifted the market.

The US retail financial services sector includes a wide-range of services, including microcredit, loan products with low annual percentage rates and extended payback periods, low-or nodown payment mortgages, community land trusts, even check cashing and pay-day lending services. Our focus is on a sub-sector of the broader financial services sector, namely retail services primarily for individuals and households, encompassing traditional banking (eg checking, savings, mortgages, etc.) and alternative financial services (eg, cash checkers, payday loans, etc.). The record on equity, though, is somewhat uneven. Some innovative financial products were clearly part of predatory lending schemes, but other similar products are, arguably, services needed in poorly served communities, and the higher fees can be seen as …