Toward a Financial Health Tool for Consumers

CFI and the Microfinance Centre (MFC) are collaborating to build a financial health tool to assist consumers with gauging and improving their financial health, and to assist financial institutions with help them do so as well. This report describes the findings from the first iteration of the tool.

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AUTHOR

Elisabeth Rhyne

Topics

CFI and the Microfinance Centre (MFC) are working together to build a financial health tool to assist customers with gauging and improving their financial health, and to assist financial institutions to help them do so as well.

This report describes the findings from the first iteration of the tool — a financial health quiz — which was tested in late 2017 with six financial institutions, two national associations, and three financial education organizations and trainers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

In administering the quiz, we observed that customers’ motivation to improve their financial health begins with the catalytic “aha moment” the quiz generates. However, more is needed to generate actual behavior change and adoption of the tool, including incorporating feedback loops, introducing modules for certain types of consumers (self-employed vs. employee) and specific challenges (e.g., financial crises, debt management, etc), and careful consideration of functionality, delivery and marketing channels, and the customer’s relationship to the financial institution.

This work is part of the Building Financial Capabilities and Strengthening Institutions Through Customer-Centered Innovations project, supported by MetLife Foundation.

Elisabeth Rhyne

Former Managing Director

From its founding in 2008 until retiring in 2019, Elisabeth Rhyne was the Managing Director of CFI. As senior vice president of Accion since 2000, Beth led Accion’s initial entry into Africa and India, directed the organization’s research efforts to develop new financial products, and managed Accion’s publications and educational activities. Recognized as a leading thinker and writer in the field of microfinance, Beth has published numerous articles and four books on the topic, including Mainstreaming Microfinance: How Lending to the Poor Began, Grew and Came of Age in Bolivia (Kumarian Press, 2001). She was also co-editor of The New World of Microenterprise Finance (Kumarian, 1994), which provided the introduction to microfinance for many of the field’s current professionals. Beth was director of the Office of Microenterprise Development at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1994 to 1998, where she developed and led USAID’s Microenterprise Initiative. While there, she contributed to the founding of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the Boulder Institute of Microfinance. Beth’s experience includes eight years of residence in Africa (Kenya and Mozambique) and independent consulting on microfinance policy and operations for governments, international organizations and microfinance institutions. She holds a master’s and Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and humanities from Stanford University.