Banking Sector Approaches to Customer Engagement and Capability

Financial institutions are leveraging innovation, new technology, social networks, and other tools that inform and engage customers. In doing so, banks are driving greater use of products and increasing consumer confidence.

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AUTHORS

Allyse McGrath, Sonja Kelly

Topic

Financial Capability

Banking Sector Approaches to Customer Engagement and Capability explores how financial institutions are leveraging innovation, new technology, social networks, and other tools that inform and engage customers. This brief builds on the belief that good product design builds the financial capability of customers. The research captures a number of successful models, including:

RBL offering unsecured loans that allow customers to build up a credit score for the first time in India;
Standard Bank leveraging existing informal group savings culture combined with a lottery to incentivize and reward savings activity in South Africa; and
A small cooperative bank “rounding up” loan repayments to create an auto-saving mechanism among credit recipients in Mexico.

This report is part of the Mainstreaming Financial Inclusion: Best Practices initiative which aims to facilitate learning and action on how mainstream financial institutions around the world can reach underserved populations with quality financial services. The project is completed in partnership with the Institute of International Finance (IIF), with support from MetLife Foundation.

Sonja Kelly

Director of Research and Advocacy, Women’s World Banking

Sonja Kelly is the global lead for Women’s World Banking research and was the research director at CFI from 2011 to 2018. Through research on the financial sector, policy trends, financial services providers, and end users, Sonja and her team advocate for women’s financial inclusion. Before joining Women’s World Banking, she advised the U.S. Department of State on strategy for U.S. Embassy engagement in digital finance around the world. She has also held consulting roles at the World Bank and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), and has worked in microfinance at Opportunity International. Sonja holds a doctorate in international relations from American University where she researched financial inclusion policy and regulation.