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I’m on my way to the presser! Follow along for the details: https://twitter.com/sallygold/status/1350788648753651714
“New York City is a city of immigrants,” says @AndrewYang, son of immigrants. “You cannot imagine this city without the folks that make the city run, start so many businesses.”
It’s perverse that in the country’s financial capital that so many people are unbanked or underbanked, Yang says. He wants banks to accept NYCID as ID to open a bank account. “The city of New York can make this happen.”
As mayor, the City of New York will not do business with banks that don’t accept NYCID, @AndrewYang says.
Congressman Richie Torres adds: “We are here to affirm that New Yorkers, regardless of income or immigration status,” should have access to banking.
“The biggest banks in New York City... refuse to accept municipal ID as a valid source of identification,” Torres says. “There’s no rational basis for rejecting IDNYC.”
“The rejection of IDNYC has the real-world effect of excluding the most vulnerable” from our financial system, Torres says. One in 9 New Yorkers are unbanked; 1 in 4 are unbanked, he says. In the Bronx, the rate is 2x as high, @RitchieTorres says.
Torres calls check-cashing fees “legalized extortion.”
The hardest-hit areas are in Melrose in the Bronx, and Jamaica in SE Queens.
New Yorkers spend $225 million on check-cashing fees every single year, Torres says.
The hardest-hit areas are in Melrose in the Bronx, and Jamaica in SE Queens.
New Yorkers spend $225 million on check-cashing fees every single year, Torres says.
Torres juxtaposes ending cash-check problems with Yang’s UBI platform, saying the latter puts money in poor people’s pockets while the former unfairly taxes them.
“These are going to be great customers for them,” Yang says of banks like JP Morgan and Bank of America taking on underbanked or unbanked clients. “This is long overdue.”
One reporter asks how Yang could ensure that it’s safe for undocumented immigrants to bank with those big banks. “There has to be some work done,” Yang says.
I ask: are you expecting pushback from these cash-check companies who could lose business from this plan.
“There is a way to provide services for folks that are not predatory,” @AndrewYang says.
“There is a way to provide services for folks that are not predatory,” @AndrewYang says.
“None of my constituents can afford to squander $1,000 on check-cashing fees,” @RitchieTorres adds.
Yang says he’ll put out a people’s banking plan in the next two weeks.
