Understanding Youth and their Financial Needs

This paper synthesizes findings from market research on youth related programs conducted by the SEEP Youth and Financial Services Working Group in 22 countries. It provides insights into the financial decision-making behavior of youth at three different levels, namely, the client, market segmentation, and institutional levels. It demonstrates how these behaviors can inform the design of financial and education support services.The paper states that emerging best practices indicate that young people benefit the most from financial services that are offered in conjunction with nonfinancial services, such as mentoring, financial education, internship opportunities, health education, livelihood skills training, and social asset building. It:

• Examines the financial decision-making behavior of youth that are influenced by factors such as their income flows, and expected contributions to their families;
• Provides preliminary guidance for organizations that are contemplating the design and implementation of youth financial services programming;
• Focuses mainly on financial education as a tool for building the capabilities of youth in saving, spending, and borrowing in order to make effective use of financial services;
• Looks at how market segmentation and the effective ways of reaching youth contribute to program design at the institutional level.