
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 29, 1994                   TAG: 9404290150
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A13   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

POOR PAYING MORE TO CASH CHECKS AS BANKS MOVE OUT, LAWMAKERS TOLD

More poor Americans without access to basic banking services are turning to check-cashing outlets, sometimes paying fees of up to 20 percent, lawmakers were told Thursday.

Banks are moving out of poor neighborhoods and check-cashers are moving in; as a result, the poor are paying more for less, said Glenn F. von Nostitz of the New York City Public Advocate's Office.

``The differences in banking for the poor and working class and banking for the middle-class and affluent is starkly apparent,'' he told the House Banking consumer subcommittee.

But representatives of banks and check-cashers - seeking to ward off further regulation - painted a very different picture.

Marie Mann of Crestar Bank of Richmond, Va., and a representative of the Consumer Bankers Association, said more than 90 percent of banks surveyed by the association last year offered low-cost checking accounts.

Jeffrey Silverman, an executive in an Illinois check-cashing company and a representative of the National Check Cashers Association, said that consumers, including middle-income people, are choosing them because of efficient service and convenient hours, he said.

by CNB