Help youth access financial products
Use our resources to help young adults access savings accounts, checking accounts, and payroll cards to manage their wages and day-to-day finances.
A critical component of youth financial capability is helping young adults obtain and utilize a bank or credit union account, or a prepaid account to deposit and manage their income. Below we provide programs, financial institutions and other collaborators with guidance, information, and strategies to improve young adult access to financial products that work for them.
Review regulatory resources
Requirements for opening bank accounts for minors
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors offers a tool that can help you review your state’s requirements for opening bank accounts for minors and provides relevant state regulatory contacts for financial institutions.
Guidance on payroll cards
The Bureau released guidance on consumer protections related to the use of payroll card accounts.
Review resource guides
Answers to legal and regulatory questions
Interagency guidance answers common questions and encourages financial institutions to work closely with local collaborators to facilitate youth savings and financial education.
Guides for collaborating to improve access
Two guides from the Financial Literacy and Education Commission describe how youth employment programs and financial institutions can work together to expand access to financial products and improve the financial well-being of young people.
Start exploring financial products
Model safe account template
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) Model Safe Account Template provides guidelines on the features and fees of “safe, low-cost transaction and savings accounts” for “underserved consumers.” FDIC’s pilot study found that accounts that used this template had higher retention rates at about the same cost to banks.
Selecting financial products and services
Get an overview of different financial products and services and how they can help people meet a specific goal or need.