Bank Lobbyists Blast Lawmakers’ Plans for ‘Unbanked’ Americans

The biggest U.S. banks criticized a pair of proposals designed to help consumers who don’t use their services.

Lawmakers’ recent proposals, such as opening bank branches in post offices or offering Federal Reserve checking accounts to every U.S. consumer, may not work to resolve the problem of the so-called unbanked Americans, industry trade groups argued in a paper published Tuesday.

Instead, they urged officials to consider creating new types of identification that consumers can show to access financial services, or encouraging Americans to open low-cost bank accounts when they’re enrolling to receive government assistance.

“Instead of establishing a large, duplicative ...