Unlocking Credit Access for Millions

65 million Americans cannot fully participate in the economy that you and I take for granted. Most of them aren't irresponsible. They're just people whose credit scores dropped during a crisis, or circumstances that our industry decided was too inconvenient to underwrite.

There is a better model, but most banks have chosen not to build it.

For the Digital Banking Report, we surveyed banks, credit unions, and fintech companies across the country. We asked one question: over the past three years, has your willingness to extend credit to consumers with scores below 670 gone up or down? 56% said down. Only 11% said up. More than half of the institutions in this country have made it harder, not easier, to serve the consumers who need credit most.

The CFPB's 2025 Consumer Credit Card Market report confirms that the retreat is accelerating. The share of large bank originations going to lower-score borrowers dropped from 23.3% in early 2022 to only 16.4% in early 2025. That's nearly a 30% decline in three years. And the industry's response has been to pull back even further.

If you ask most banking executives what holds them back from this market, you'll hear one word: regulation. Our survey tested that assumption directly. 87% of the institutions cited expected credit losses as a primary barrier. 57% point to acquisition or servicing cost. As for regulatory constraints — only 32%, third on the list, well behind the first two. So the industry is not being stopped by the rules. We're stopping ourselves.

But here's where it gets more troubling. Our survey asked what institutions actually do to improve the outcomes once they do extend credit with less-than-perfect scores. 82% say they invest in transparent pricing and disclosures. 65% offer some form of credit education or financial literacy tools. Both of those numbers sound reasonable. Then the drop-off happens.

Only 32% use alternative underwriting data or digital tools to encourage responsible usage, and only 22% offer gradual credit line increases tied to demonstrated payment performance. Most institutions are willing to explain credit, but fewer are willing to educate around it, and only a fraction are willing to redesign products so consumers can actually progress. That's not a risk management strategy. That's the industry stopping at the easy part and calling it inclusion.

Here's the objection I hear most often: we cannot price these products sustainably without fees, and consumers resist fees. That's true, but that's beside the point. The average American household pays over $100 a month in subscription fees — Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, maybe food delivery, gym memberships, cloud storage. An annual credit card fee divided over 12 months often costs less per month than a single one of those services. Those deliver entertainment. A credit card delivers access to the modern economy. You can't rent a car with Netflix. You can't build a credit history by paying cash for food delivery.

Fees are really not the problem. The problem is that the industry has never explained what the fee actually funds. It funds the risk of saying yes to a consumer who may not be able to repay their credit card on time. And the tools that help consumers build the habits that improve their profile — without the fee, that model does not exist. And without the model, neither does the card, or the credit, to the consumer.

In a couple of minutes, I'm going to tell you about a woman whose credit score climbed 150 points in three years. But first, you have to understand the model that made this possible.

There's a phrase I want you to carry out of this video: financial momentum. It actually came from Steve Min, the chief credit officer at Credit One Bank, who I interviewed a while back. His point is simple. The goal is not just to get someone a credit card. The goal is to help them build a series of positive financial steps — each one making the next one possible. Pay on time. Watch the score move. Score moves, better terms become available. Better terms open access to better products. Better products build a longer relationship. That is what financial momentum looks like.

And it only works if these three things are present at the same time: access, education, and a path forward. Access without education produces debt. Education without access produces frustration. A path forward without both is just a marketing promise.

Steve Min describes what he calls "credit in thirds." Make payments on time. Do not max out available credit. And maintain both the breadth and length of your credit history. It's not all that complicated, but Credit One Bank's own research found that two thirds of consumers don't understand even these basics. A missed payment can stay on a credit report for up to seven years — most people don't realize that. The gap between what consumers know and what they need to know is not their failure. It's our industry's unfinished work.

Now, let me tell you about the person I mentioned — to show what this looks like when the model actually runs right.

I met Taisha Jamison at the Global Hope Forum. When I heard her story in person, it put a face on everything I've been reading in the numbers. Taisha went through a divorce and lost her nine-year-old daughter to asthma. Medical bills piled up. She had to step away from work. Within a month, her credit score was in serious trouble. When she tried to get back on her feet, most banks said no. Credit One Bank said yes.

They were upfront about the fees. They built financial education directly into the account — not as a brochure, not as part of a website. It was actually how the product worked. She could see her score. She understood what moved it. She had the tools to stay on track. And as Taisha made her payments month after month, she watched the score climb. Within three years, she raised it by over 150 points. She eventually qualified for a car loan with good rates, which led to a higher-paying job she could drive to. And she told me she never thought that would be her life.

Standing there listening to her, I kept thinking about how many people never get that chance — how many are still on the outside because an institution decided the math didn't work for them.

That story is not a feel-good footnote. It's the proof of concept for a model most of the industry has not bothered to build. What that single bank did was not charity, and it was not reckless. It was disciplined. That chain of access, education, and momentum is what separates an institution committed to financial inclusion from one that simply talks about it.

The 82% who say they invest in transparent pricing, the 65% who say they offer literacy tools — most of them stop there. The ones who add alternative data, behavioral tools, and graduation paths are the ones whose customers actually go somewhere.

So what are the Monday morning takeaways? Three things, with clear ownership.

First, for risk and product leaders: Stop treating the 670 threshold as a binary on/off switch. Nearly 1 in 5 institutions in our survey see the risk at that threshold as comparable to a prime borrower. Build the segmentation models that distinguish between a consumer with a pattern of default and a consumer whose score dropped because of a medical crisis three years ago. Those are not the same person. Your underwriting is treating them as if they were, and you're walking away from creditworthy borrowers every single day because of it.

Second, for marketing and product design teams: Stop defending the annual fee and start explaining what it funds. It funds the yes. It funds the educational tools. It funds score monitoring and alerts, and the autopay features that help a customer build better habits. When fees are reduced as a customer improves, that's not a discount. It's proof that the model is working.

Third, to digital and customer experience teams: Build the progression path into the product. Score visibility, behavioral alerts, and automatic credit line reviews tied to payment performance are not just nice-to-have features — they're what turns your credit card into a financial momentum engine. Only 22% of institutions do this today.

Every institution in this country says it wants to serve underserved communities. The data says most of them have quietly moved in the opposite direction.

The model that actually works is not complicated, and it's not charity. It is transparent fees that fund the risk of yes. Education embedded into the financial product. And a progression path where the costs decline and product options expand as a customer's credit improves. This is not a social mission. This is a business model with better long-term economics than the one most institutions are running today.