(Reuters) – U.S. households that rely on services such as check cashing and payday loans to make ends meet are more likely to hold cryptocurrencies, with all their associated risks, than those that have greater access to established banks Tuesday.

A report by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation also found that one in eight buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) shoppers were tardy or missed on at least one purchase.

The findings are contained in the latest periodic survey of “banked” and “unbanked” households: those that have little or no access to established banking.

In June 2023, the FDIC surveyed 30,000 households as part of a series of surveys launched in the wake of the global financial crisis that began in 2007.

According to the study, the percentage of households considered “unbanked”, or those that did not employ current or savings accounts, has fallen by around half since 2011 to 4.2%, or 5.6 million households.

However, wide disparities remain between different groups, with poorer Black, Latino, Native American, Alaska Native and single-parent households or those with working-age members with disabilities being much more likely to lack access to services banking.

Such households were also much more likely to be underbanked, meaning they had access to bank accounts but had also met their needs over the past 12 months, including by borrowing from pawnshops and moneylenders or using check cashing.

Of all U.S. households, 14.2%, or 19 million, were underbanked. Over 6% of them had digital currencies, compared to 4.8% of households with full access to established banking.

Almost one in 10 underbanked households also used increasingly popular BNPL services, compared to just 3% of households considered fully banked.

Almost 13% of BNPL users reported missing or tardy payments, rising to over 20% among the underbanked.