News

The Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition, Inc. (ONAC) wishes to thank Indian Country Today for the opportunity to speak about several of ONAC's programs. The interview, with colleague Felecia Freeman, is included in this newscast:https://indiancountrytoday.com/newscasts/christy-finsel-09-02-2021

Native Bank On ONAC, a program of the Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition, Inc. (ONAC), is launching an expanded initiative that seeks to improve access to, and utilization of, financial services in or near Native communities across the U.S. According to 2017 FDIC data, 50.5% of American Indians and Alaska Natives are unbanked and underbanked and are not taking full advantage of the money-saving services and wealth building tools available at banks and credit unions. Native Bank On ONAC has created the Get Banked Indian Country initiative in hopes of increasing the number of tribal citizens that choose to open affordable checking and savings accounts that will safely hold their paychecks, child tax credits, income tax refunds, savings, etc.  

Native Bank On ONAC advocates for the use of low-fee, secure, and attractive financial accounts, such as Bank On certified accounts, offered by the banks and credit unions that serve Native communities. 

Bank On account features required for National Account Standards certification include:

·      Low fees and no hidden fees

·      A checking or checkless checking account that offers a no-fee debit or prepaid card

·      Zero dollars to a maximum of $25 required as an opening deposit

·      Free direct deposit and bill pay services

What are the average costs of banking and “alternative banking”? Not utilizing Bank On certified accounts and using alternative financial services costs tribal citizens more in service fees per year. Consider the following costs:

·      Bank On accounts cost account owners a maximum of $60 a year in service fees

·      The average non-Bank On checking account costs a consumer $150 per year in fees

·      The average cost for using prepaid cards instead, with direct deposit, is $196.50 per year

·      That average cost jumps to $497.33 per year if the prepaid card has no direct deposit

·      People who deal only in cash face average service costs of $198.83 per year

·      Unbanked consumers without direct deposit pay an average of $182.03 per year in service fees just to access their money,

·      The average payday loan borrower pays $520 (with fees) for an initial loan of $375

Get Banked Indian Country hopes to increase the number of Native-owned and Native-serving financial institutions that offer FDIC insured Bank On certified (or comparable) accounts. Through Get Banked Indian Country, ONAC approaches financial institutions– especially those that Native communities trust and already work with– to encourage them to become Bank On certified, and provides Bank On certified (or comparable) account information and opening account incentives for new account owners.  To learn more about Native Bank On ONAC, go to https://oknativeassets.org/our_work/Native-Bank-On-ONAC.

Searching for an FDIC-insured bank in your area? Go to:  https://banks.data.fdic.gov/bankfind-suite/bankfind.

Here is a link to the Get Banked Indian Country Flyer.

 

For those working with Native families that might be interested in financial coaching, you are welcome to pass along this flyer or the information below. Such services may be useful to those living in areas of the country without access to Native-specific financial coaching. 

For those who are American Indian and Alaska Native and interested in one-on-one credit counseling, homebuyer education, and/or money management coaching, ONAC provides these resources to you for no cost. These services are available via phone and teleconference. To register for this financial coaching, please complete the registration form by clicking on this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ONACcounselingregistration. Within a few days from when your registration form is received, ONAC’s financial counselor, Ms. Felecia Freeman (Citizen Potawatomi Nation), will contact you to schedule an appointment. For those interested in a credit builder loan, an option is available. If you would like to learn more about these services, please contact Christy Finsel, ONAC Executive Director, via email at cfinsel@oknativeassets.org or by phone at (405) 720-0770.

The purpose of the Native Bank On ONAC Initiative is to promote greater access to financial services in Native communities. An important part of expanding such access is establishing the opportunity for Native peoples to open safe and affordable transactional financial accounts. The Native Bank On ONAC initiative is housed within the Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition, Inc. (ONAC), which has administered the first national Native banking access initiative in the U.S. since 2019.  While ONAC was started in Oklahoma in 2001, it has kept its name and serves Native communities throughout the country. 

The national Bank On initiative (of which Native Bank On ONAC is a part) supports accounts that meet specific national certification standards that are designed to create low-cost accounts that help unbanked and underbanked individuals have greater access to safe, affordable, and effective mainstream financial services and products. 

As part of our Native-focused Bank On promotional efforts, ONAC 1) provides Native-specific banking access resources; 2) works with financial institutions as they apply to certify specific accounts with the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (the lead national organizations that supports Bank On goals); 3) helps to connect Native programs working on improving banking access to financial institutions interested in promoting Bank On certified accounts to tribal citizens; and 4) provides current Bank On account information to the tribal citizens ONAC serves through the various asset building programs it administers.

Please complete the interest form to express your interest to ONAC in Native-related banking access issues and coalition activities.  Here is a link to the form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NativeBankOnONAC. 

Thank you for all your work to support banking access in Native communities!

We invite you to Join us for a webinar, Meeting the Financial Services Needs of Native Americans: Native Bank On ONAC, to be held on May 20, 2021, from 1-2:30 p.m. CT.   

Description of the webinar: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) hosts this webinar to offer strategies for reaching unbanked Native American households, which have the highest unbanked percentage of any population. Presenters from Native Bank On ONAC (Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition, Inc.), two Bank On coalition-member banks, and the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE) will detail how the partners target Native American consumers with accounts certified by the CFE. The FDIC will share resources from its GetBanked campaign. 

Registration link: https://web.cvent.com/event/5e69dafb-186e-4e43-a998-719892e7eef4/regProcessStep1

Resource Guide for Native Women Entrepreneurs in the United States

Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition, Inc. (ONAC)

February 2021

In July 2020, ONAC distributed a survey to Native women entrepreneurs. As a follow-up to that survey and the summary data report ONAC published in November 2020, ONAC has generated a resource guide for Native women entrepreneurs in the U.S. (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians). 

Resources Needed

In their online ONAC survey responses, Native women entrepreneurs shared their challenges and desire for more resources in three key areas including: 1) Business Education 2) Financial Services and Products, and 3) Mentorship.

Business Education

Native businesswomen are interested in online and in-person training workshops, one-on-one entrepreneurship technical assistance, and entrepreneurship-related degree programs.  

Financial Services and Products

Native businesswomen expressed a need for increased access to capital for small business start-up and expansion.

Mentorship

Business mentorship is one more request from Native businesswomen. Mentoring support could come from participation in Native chambers of commerce events, coalition conferences, and other Native-led mentoring networks. 

Note About Possible Missing Resources

This document includes an initial compilation of resources that are available for Native women entrepreneurs across the country. These resource lists are not exhaustive. The descriptions of the resources are attributed to the entities providing information about their work. While ONAC staff tried to conduct a thorough search, given the number of federal and state recognized tribes, Native nonprofits, funding entities, associations, federal resources, etc., we may have inadvertently missed resources for this guide. To recommend additional resources, contact Christy Finsel, ONAC Executive Director, at cfinsel@oknativeassets.org. 

The Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition, Inc. (ONAC) has released a summary data report entitled, "Native Women Business Owners: Building Assets, Strengthening their Communities, and Working to Close the Women's Wealth Gap."   For more information about the report, contact Christy Finsel, ONAC Executive Director, at cfinsel@oknativeassets.org. 

Here is a handout with information provided by ONAC grantees regarding how they delivered remote and/or socially distanced Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) services during the 2020 tax season and shutdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The handout includes a summary of the ONAC grantee 2020 VITA service efforts based upon direct excerpts from grant reports submitted by each grantee that provide more details about their overall experience and the adjustments they made to provide tax filing services in their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. ONAC let the grantees know that we were collecting information from their reports for this handout. The summary attributions are included in the handout. 

Due to necessity, both tax preparers and filers are now using technology that they may not have used before to successfully complete remote tax filings. While providing VITA services to their local Native communities, these Native-led VITA programs are striving to keep both the preparers and filers as safe as possible. 

We hope this information might be useful to those providing Native VITA services. 

A big thank you to the Native VITA programs that shared their innovations. 

The Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition, Inc. is offering a resource guide for Native financial educators and coaches that might need assistance as they move from offering in-person to remote teaching and coaching sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guide also includes a resource list with Native-specific financial education materials and other related resources. To view the guide, go to https://bit.ly/ONACGoingRemote. To view the video that accompanies this guide, go to https://youtu.be/v9FCIpePMMw. 

For those who are American Indian or Alaska Native and interested in one-on-one credit counseling, homebuyer education, and/or money management coaching, ONAC provides these resources to you for no cost.  These services are available via phone and teleconference. To register for this financial coaching, please complete the registration form by clicking on this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ONACcounselingregistration. Within a few days from when your registration form is received, one of ONAC’s Native financial counselors  will contact you to schedule an appointment. If you would like to learn more about these services, please contact Christy Finsel, ONAC Executive Director, via email at cfinsel@oknativeassets.org or by phone at (405) 720-0770. 

Free Financial Coaching Flyer.pdf