Two-Tier Banking: The Rise of Fringe Banks in Winnepeg's Inner City.

This paper uses results from a study of fringe banking of an inner city neighbourhood in Winnipeg to understand the growth of fringe banks. While fringe financial services are more expensive than mainstream bank services, the numbers of fringe banks are growing in Winnipeg and other centres in Canada and the US. Based on interviews with fringe bank clients and secondary data we find that this growth is the result of market segmentation, due in part to mainstream bank strategies of branch closures and stagnating incomes of low-income Canadians. Our results suggest that market segmentation has the potential to exacerbate the problems faced by low-income Canadians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]