FDIC: 21.4 percent of black families don’t have bank accounts

Roughly 10 million U.S. households, or 8.2 percent, have no access to bank accounts, according to a survey conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That’s up from 7.7 percent in the FDIC’s 2009 survey.

And an even larger percentage of Americans are relying on high-interest alternatives, even those with traditional bank accounts. The survey found 28.3 percent either lacked bank accounts or used payday loans, check-cashing services and other alternatives as of June 2011. That’s up from 25.6 percent in the previous survey.

The survey found 21.4 percent of black families and 20.1 percent of Hispanic families had no banking services.