The question to me is, why does this population exist in such great numbers? I understand not having good credit, but having access to a checking account with a debit card doesn't seem like it should be insurmountable.
The last checking account I opened just took $5 to open the account (technically a "membership" fee at a credit union). No any proof of employment, income, ar assets was needed [0], and I left with a debit card that day. Total time involvement was maybe 15 minutes.
[0] I just re-checked and all that is needed is SSN, Government ID, and the initial deposit (as low as $5, can be paid with cash, debit, credit, or check)
They did run a credit check though, and if you don't have a high enough credit score, they won't give you a debit card - they'll only give you an ATM card.
Also, what could be called credit-union deserts. Lots of people don't have access to a credit union, and the large banks charge huge fees on poor people (see "the high cost of being poor"[0]). Past that, some of the above poor people have had terrible experiences with banks and want nothing to do with them. It easily adds up to that ~10% mentioned in the article.
Many bank accounts are really expensive if you can't manage to reach the free tier. One of my local banks will take $6/month if you don't leave $100 in there. And if you're having trouble leaving $100 in your account, it can be pretty easy for a delayed transaction to trigger an overdraft, and then you've got even bigger fees. Do that enough times and either you'll swear off banks, or they'll blacklist you in chexsystems or both.
Some banks are doing these Pre-paid-ish cards now. I know Chase has Liquid, other banks may call it something else. For the most part, it functions mostly like a debit card backed by an actual checking account. But the requirements are far lower. They don't give a flying fuck who you are. You can even get checks to access the funds on the card.
And for like 90% of the time, you'll never realize you don't actually have a checking account. You won't realize that your money isn't technically backed by the bank. Then that 10% of the time will make your life inconvenient.
So I'd say that access to a card-based payment method doesn't seem insurmountable. But an actual checking account could still be out of the reach of some people.
I also opened an account at a credit union less than a year ago. $5 was enough for a checking and saving account, though I had to wait a few days for my debit card to be mailed. I needed proof of residence and ID, but no proof of income.
The last checking account I opened just took $5 to open the account (technically a "membership" fee at a credit union). No any proof of employment, income, ar assets was needed [0], and I left with a debit card that day. Total time involvement was maybe 15 minutes.
[0] I just re-checked and all that is needed is SSN, Government ID, and the initial deposit (as low as $5, can be paid with cash, debit, credit, or check)