""Underserved" typically means low income and shitty credit. Not a lot for banks to do for customers like that. Makes sense they're closing."
Yes on low income. But credit history has nothing to do with access to either a savings or a checking account, which was the basic premise of the argument in the 1990s.
Check cashing stores don't extend credit of the kind you would get from a bank. Nor do they offer savings or checking accounts. But for many people they were the only viable option for financial services.
The salient point, though, of why many of these branches are now closing are that methods of accessing those financial services are no longer the same as they were in the 1990s.
It wasn't until the mid to late 1990s that most banks and credit unions had online access. Phone access was much the same, and it was only available on land lines. Cell phone banking didn't become a thing until 2007.
At that time you had to show up, in person, at a bank or credit union to open an account. Now you can do it on line. Now you can do virtually everything on line. I've not set foot in a Navy Federal branch in over a decade.
Yet I've refinanced my mortgage, taken out two car loans, taken out two equity lines of credit, pay my bills monthly, etc., all on line, either on my computer or on my cell phone.
Banks are still working to serve those underserved communities, but they're doing so online. So no, it's not surprising that banks are closing branches, especially smaller service branches like those in supermarkets. You're right, ATMs are now far more capable than they were back in the 1990s. But, I know of only a very few check cashing ATMs, and in order to do so I THINK you need to have a bank account to serve as a guarantee for the check.
