If basic financial services are unavailable, residents become "vulnerable to predatory lenders and pricey check cashers".
[4] The term had also been used to describe the situation in Newfoundland and Labrador during the period of 1993 to 2003, when the Canadian provinces had lost 23% of its bank branches.
This made way for higher-priced alternative financial services, such as payday lenders and check-cashing stores, to occupy these areas.
[6] The amount of banking branches in the United States peaked at 99,163 during the Great Recession and fell to 88,070 by 2018; major cities that have had banks close the most in non-white areas include Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and Las Vegas.
[7] It's much harder for citizens to build wealth, credit, and savings with only expensive alternative services and without a physical bank nearby.