With crashing oil prices, low levels of growth and alarm bells ringing in China’s trading rooms, many fear that despite recent signs of recovery, the worst is still to come. As governments struggle to get record levels of debt under control many are now turning to technology to educate, inform and provide impartial financial guidance to help build consumer financial resilience and improve financial health. We take a look at three of the most innovative players in this space.
UK: The Money Advice Service
The UK’s the Money Advice Service was set up as an impartial organization by the UK government to help people make the most of their money. With a broad remit, the organisation’s digital service offers 2,500 fully mobile responsive web pages in both English and Welsh across a huge range of subjects ranging from coping with debt to car and house buying.
The most popular sections include their online tools and calculators. These offer interactive tests and plans from financial health checks through to retirement planning. The site is designed for clarity and functionality – with simple linking, layout and off-site signposting, as well as guest bloggers and topical advice, hints, and tips.
New Zealand: Sorted / Commission for Financial Capability
Like its UK counterpart, The Money Advice Service, the New Zealand Commission for Financial Capability has a similar autonomous, impartial consumer remit. As well as offering a comprehensive national financial capability website, the CFFC has built a separate consumer website targeting the ‘squeezed middle’ and those most at risk from falling into debt following a life crisis.
Sorted offers a guidance, tools and calculators in a friendly ‘life event’ format covering everything from personality quizzes to no-nonsense savings and investments guides.
China: China Foundation for Development of Financial Education (CFDFE)
As the only national public fund-raising foundation in the Chinese financial system, the CFDFE takes advancing financial education as its mission. As well as an established national financial capability improvement programme, the CFDFE targets poverty through rural financial infrastructure improvements, product innovation, payment channel expansion and credit system creation.
The CFDFE has recently teamed up with VISA to conduct a mobile phone-based financial education pilot program in Inner Mongolia. Over the next three years, the payment giant will offer education to farmers and herders in eight poor counties in Inner Mongolia to promote Internet finance in the areas.
"The pervasive availability of low-cost technology, notably mobile phones, drives down the cost of transactions and provides convenient, safe and reasonably priced financial services to low-income individuals and communities," said Charles W. Scharf, Visa’s Chief Executive.