Financial Institution Locations in Ontario, Canada: do Ontario Residents Have Equal Access?

This research explores the issue of financial access in the Province of Ontario, Canada. As banking becomes more technology-driven – for example, online banking and increased use of enhanced ATMs – there is potential for parts of the population of Ontario to be cut off from key in-person (or bricks-and-mortar) services. This research explores this using a series of descriptive and inferential techniques (e.g., regression and measures of spatial autocorrelation) to explore patterns in financial institution access across the province. The research shows that a small, but significant portion of the population (approximately 10%) do not have adequate access to services. These tend to be in more rural areas and impact lower-income, lower-educated households. These findings can provide some pathways to facilitating better access to services within Ontario. Keywords: Financial Institutions; Access; Regression; Spatial Analysis; Ontario