Have you considered unbanking the Banked?

"There's a troubling trend in this nation: People are giving up their banks." starts an article that I read recently (Read here). During 2008 the Center for Financial Services Innovation, estimated that about 13% of US households are either unbanked or underbanked. This is a large number, but what is even more interesting (worrying?) is that that this number has now grown to 25%. This is a massive shift. The article then try and fathom the reasons for this phenomena.

I would like to postulate that these customers do not want the services offered by banks (and quite frankly), banks do not want these customers as customers. They typically do not buy the services offered by the existing banks and are probably not very profitable to service. It is this disconnect between (lets call them) classic banks and lower income customers that are driving this trend. It is my view that given an alternative banking experience this trend will become a flood. If these consumers were to be able to satisfy their banking needs in a more friendly, geographically distributed way, the 25% will grow to 50%.

Here-in lies the opportunity - even in the US - to build an alternative service that will unbank the banked onto a more suitable service. This service will undoubtedly have to be based on the mobile platform.