The United States is awash with banks.

美國到處都是銀行。

It's got almost 5000 commercial lenders, and yet amazingly, 5% of households have no bank account.

它有近5000個商業貸款人，然而令人驚訝的是，5%的家庭沒有銀行賬戶。

That's about five times the rate in France, Germany and Britain.

這大約是法國、德國和英國的五倍。

And if you look closer, it gets even worse because one in seven black households is unbanked versus one in 40 white households.

如果你仔細觀察，情況會更糟糕，因為每7個黑人家庭中就有一個沒有銀行賬戶，而每40個白人家庭中就有一個。

This is mattering more than ever because President Joe Biden wants to make more direct payments to Americans on the families to help them replace income lost but also to close America's yawning historical wealth gaps.

這比以往任何時候都重要，因為喬-拜登總統希望向美國人的家庭提供更多的直接付款，以幫助他們補充損失的收入，但同時也要縮小美國曆史上哈欠連天的貧富差距。

A family with no bank account that received a stimulus check in 2020 could have paid around $200 to cash it, according to a study by the Financial Health Network.

根據金融健康網的一項研究，一個沒有銀行賬戶的家庭，如果在2020年收到一張刺激經濟的支票，可以支付大約200美元來兌現。

Banks say they're opening branches in low income areas, but that's only a part of the solution.

銀行說他們正在低收入地區開設分行，但這只是解決方案的一部分。

One third of the people who don't have an account say that it's partly because they don't trust banks, according to government surveys.

根據政府調查，三分之一沒有賬戶的人表示，部分原因是他們不信任銀行。

One way around that is for big banks to lend to smaller local ones that a better earning communities trust banks like Hope Credit Union in Mississippi, which is one that had funding recently, and lending support from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and even Netflix.

其中一個辦法是大銀行向當地的小銀行貸款，一個收入較好的社區信任的銀行，比如密西西比州的希望信用社，這是一家最近有資金的銀行，美國銀行、高盛甚至Netflix也提供了貸款支持。

There's also more dramatic solution, which is to give everyone a free bank account, maybe at the Federal Reserve or even the Postal Service.

還有更戲劇性的解決方案，就是給每個人一個免費的銀行賬戶，也許是在美聯儲，甚至是郵政部門。

That's an idea that Biden's advisers have already been kicking around.

這是拜登的顧問們已經在討論的一個想法。

Banks may not like that kind of extra competition, but then, that's all the more reason for them to hurry up close the banking gap themselves.

銀行可能不喜歡這種額外的競爭，但是呢，他們更應該趕緊彌補自己的銀行缺口。