A Customer-Centric Approach to Measuring Financial Needs

Financial inclusion targets (percentage of adults with a bank account, say) remain valid, but they don’t tell you much when tracked in isolation. This study aims to understand if people are actually using their financial services and, more importantly, if it is having an impact on their lives.

Through a series of country-level pilot studies, the study sets out to understand how people’s financial needs manifest, what they use to meet those needs and how they use it, as well as what drives them to choose the specific combination of financial services or strategies and, ultimately, whether their usage allows them to meet their needs. It also aims to test the power of different data sources – notably face-to-face demand-side surveys and transaction data on formal accounts – to create a holistic picture of people’s financial lives. Ultimately, the goal was to inform policy aimed at welfare impact, meaning socio-economic gains – a population able to pursue opportunities and weather financial shocks.