The Financial Needs of Mexicans

The insight2impact financial needs measurement framework identifies four universal financial needs: to transfer value, to remain liquid, to deal with financial shocks and to meet future goals. By starting from an understanding of consumer's financial needs, the use cases, rather than what financial products they have, the study was able to analyze the full range of financial devices customers use to meet their needs, including cash kept at home and borrowing from friends and family.

Overall, the findings suggest that formal financial services are not doing a good job of competing with informal alternatives on ease of access and flexibility (think minimum account balances and fixed credit repayment terms). A bank also does not give the same comfort and sense of belonging as a social circle. Neither can digital financial services yet match cash as a "free", fungible and convenient payment mechanism where the user feels more in control of their finances. This matched the findings of the nationally representative ENIF survey and the Financial Diaries study, as represented in this report.