Under this legislation, federal bank regulatory agencies rate banks on their efforts to serve low-income communities. These early legislations were designed to ensure access to a deposit account but did not spell out the nature of banking services that should be on offer.
Refinements in this area have actually taken place in the latter half of the 1990s, resulting partly from a wider concern regarding social exclusion (Caskey et al, 2006, Kempson et al, 2000). It may, thus, be noted that financial inclusion is a concern even in developed countries and legislative or regulatory measure to achieve it are a common feature.