Digitalization
Financier
The financial landscape in Mexico and Latin America has changed radically in recent years. The advancement of financial technologies has allowed more people to manage their finances digitally, but financial inclusion still faces challenges.
In this edition of Deciphering we break down those challenges, focusing our analysis on different types of users and their relationship with personal finance.
Join us as we decipher financial inclusion!
The financial landscape in Mexico and Latin America has changed radically in recent years. The advancement of financial technologies has allowed more people to manage their finances digitally, but financial inclusion still faces challenges.
In this edition of Deciphering we break down those challenges, focusing our analysis on different types of users and their relationship with personal finance.
Join us as we decipher financial inclusion!
The dynamic cycle of financial inclusion
The inclusion and digital adoption of financial products is not a linear or homogeneous process; it comprises stages that allow it to be analyzed as a cycle.
Each stage of the cycle allows us to understand how people interact with financial services and what strategies different platforms and services can follow to improve their experience.
Financial inclusion
Savings capacity
Possibility to save easily and securely.
Risk Protection
Services that help to manage
financial risks.
Reducing inequality
Promotes economic development and reduces barriers,
Access to financial products
How accounts, loans, and formal services.
Future investment
Moments of life and financial maturity
There are two key factors that influence our relationship with finances: life moments and financial maturity. The interaction of both factors determines how financial decisions are made.
Moments of life
Major life events or transitions
Financial maturity
Level of experience and knowledge to make informed decisions
Moments of life
Major life events or transitions
Financial maturity
Level of experience and knowledge to make informed decisions
Different attitudes towards financial inclusion
When we talk about financial inclusion, demographic aspects are often insufficient to deeply understand people. We have identified five archetypes that represent financial attitudes and behaviors in young Mexican adults. Each of them faces unique challenges and opportunities on their journey toward financial inclusion.
Traditional Conformity
They prefer the familiar, with low appetite for risk.
Pragmatic Skepticism
Critical and data-driven, but reluctant to new things.
Overconfident Idealism
Risky and eager for new financial experiences.
Adventurous Impulsiveness
Guided by urgency or pleasure in their decisions.
Fearful Uncertainty
Avoid making financial decisions out of fear and lack of knowledge.
Traditional Conformity
- Lead driver
- Comfort
- Opportunities in the journey
- Access and loyalty
Description
- What he has works for him and he has no interest or motivation to explore.
- He is financially stable, so he doesn't like to limit himself, but he also doesn't like to take risks.
- He feels comfortable with his lifestyle and his job; his income is good and allows him financial freedom.
- Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Need to achieve financial digitalization
Make them a participant with digital activity, improving their confidence. Reinforce their perception of security and access to money. Increase their responsibility, stepping out of their comfort zone.
Experience
- Your experience level is low because you've probably only had one bank and prefer to stick with it.
- They came to a financial entity by recommendation or through employers and stayed there.
- Prefers recognized and solid financial institutions.
Knowledge
- He has relatively high financial knowledge due to his career path. He has been banked for a long time, and his economic stability has allowed him to grow.
- They are afraid to experiment with new financial products because they don't trust their legitimacy and feel like they don't understand them.
- Deep knowledge of specific products within specific entities, but unaware of the sector and alternatives.
Behavior
- She likes bank branches because having a physical channel gives her confidence.
- He doesn't explore much due to lack of knowledge of the sector and complacency.
- There is a significant factor of fear and distrust when making decisions.
Financial life
Management
Total control
Indifference
Vision
Idealist
Realistic
Priorities
Future
Present
Attitude
Passive
Activate
Risk
Bass
High
Pragmatic Skepticism
- Lead driver
- Utility, stability, and benefit
- Opportunities in the journey
- Use
Description
- Base your decisions on concrete data and be critical.
- He/She has economic stability because he/she has managed and invested wisely.
- It is hardly influenced by trends or fashions.
- They are distrustful of unverified data, products that have little time on the market, or that don't have a solid customer base.
Need to achieve financial digitalization
Loyally engage him and ensure he promotes his learning to those close to him. Increase his responsibility, step out of his comfort zone.
Experience
- He hasn't used many financial products, but he knows the ones he has used perfectly.
- You need to identify comprehensive benefits to decide whether to use a new product.
- Master financial concepts.
Knowledge
- He knows a lot about finance and stays informed on relevant topics.
- Learn by being informed and not so much by experience.
- He has a habit of looking for information, he is curious but from a distance.
Behavior
- Critically evaluate the financial decisions you make.
- He doesn't make decisions unless he's sure it's the best alternative.
- They have low brand loyalty, use what works for them, and stop using it as soon as it stops working for them.
Financial life
Management
Total control
Indifference
Vision
Idealist
Realistic
Priorities
Future
Present
Attitude
Passive
Activate
Risk
Bass
High
Overconfident Idealism
- Lead driver
- Adventure, new experiences
- Opportunities in the journey
- Financial Education & Loyalty
Description
- He believes he has reached the tipping point between knowledge and experience.
- It's risky in your financial decision-making.
- Your trust in the products makes you early adopters.
- Browse through the various benefits and products to get the best of all.
- They tend to be a brand lover; there's a feature of their product that they defend to the death.
Need to achieve financial digitalization
Look for new approaches to your financial education; ensure you can evolve with the subject so you don't fall behind. Increase your responsibility, step out of your comfort zone.
Experience
- They see experience with products as knowledge, and they seek to develop themselves in that way.
- Once they reached a certain level of financial stability, they sought to learn from experience and make high-risk decisions.
- They are very interested in expanding into innovative and digital products to remain at the forefront.
Knowledge
- They overestimate their financial knowledge and are confident in making high-risk decisions.
- They have a decent financial education that has given them stability.
- They manage their daily money well, even though they don't thoroughly know the products they explore.
Behavior
- They are adventurous, they like to delve into different financial products.
- They can make very prudent day-to-day financial decisions, but they like to take risks when trying new things.
- You are interested in using financial products to your advantage.
- They are prone to recommendations from financial gurus or close circles.
Financial life
Management
Total control
Indifference
Vision
Idealist
Realistic
Priorities
Future
Present
Attitude
Passive
Activate
Risk
Bass
High
Adventurous Impulsiveness
- Lead driver
- Pleasure, the goal they seek to achieve
- Opportunities in the journey
- Usage from restrictions
Description
- They are idealists by choice (or lack of experience), they see it as a way of life.
- They don't see knowledge as necessary for making financial decisions.
- Financial products are a means.
- They believe "money comes and goes.".
- They are guided by pleasure (benefits, performance, consumption).
Need to achieve financial digitalization
Increase your responsibility by connecting with new value propositions.
Experience
- Are they open or looking to level up their experience to receive benefits.
- Their openness to exploration and pursuit of hands-on learning provide them with a high level of expertise.
Knowledge
- Your level of knowledge is low, and it's partly related to your carelessness about the future.
- They feel they can learn everything they need through pure experience, although this can have serious consequences.
- On occasion, they may have an aversion to theoretical financial knowledge (either because they are lazy, or because seeking more knowledge causes them more anxiety than just living in the moment).
Behavior
- They seek to maximize financial benefits.
- They are impulsive and open to trying new things.
- They tend to get stuck in consumption habits or fixed goals.
- They prefer to learn from people they trust, reducing their worry about the future.
Financial life
Management
Total control
Indifference
Vision
Idealist
Realistic
Priorities
Future
Present
Attitude
Passive
Activate
Risk
Bass
High
Fearful Uncertainty
- Lead driver
- Fear, stress avoidance
- Opportunities in the journey
- Financial Education
Description
- New to the financial world.
- They are afraid of the world of finance, which is why they avoid gaining experience and knowledge beyond what is necessary.
- They avoid talking about finances because they perceive it as imprudent, or it stresses them out.
- They are looking for low risk and simplicity.
Need to achieve financial digitalization
Strengthen your decision-making moment. Increase your independence, step out of your comfort zone.
Experience
- Your level of experience with financial products and services is almost nonexistent.
- They tend to only have a debit card and a credit card.
- Your fears may be based on your lack of experience, or on negative family experiences.
Knowledge
- Their level of knowledge is very low, usually because they haven't needed to develop it.
- Your financial knowledge (and sometimes "trauma") tends to be inherited.
- They might prefer learning through advice from trusted individuals (the theory of the financial world seems intimidating to them, and learning through experience scares them too much).
Behavior
- They tend to go with the first option, guided by advice from trusted individuals or information from social media.
- They don't explore much; they're afraid of their own ignorance and the unknown.
- They avoid increasing their knowledge because finances stress them out.
Financial life
Management
Total control
Indifference
Vision
Idealist
Realistic
Priorities
Future
Present
Attitude
Passive
Activate
Risk
Bass
High
Archetypes and the Dynamic Cycle of Financial Inclusion
Each archetype experiences the trip financial inclusion cycle.
When adopting or using digital financial products, each person encounters their own tipping point or moment of greatest inhibition in their growth.
Financial digitization can be approached from different angles and under various schemes.
At Gerundio, we believe that to address the financial inclusion cycle from a systemic and strategic design approach, we must commit to increase people's knowledge and experience at each stage, starting with education.
Recommendations for encouraging
financial digitalization
Visualize the win-win of risks and benefits
Communicate transparently and clearly both the benefits and risks when obtaining a product, as it does Diggit
Share success stories and real-life experiences
Offer testimonials, success stories, or everyday scenarios to teach financial concepts, just like Let's share a bank
Visualize long-term goals and plans
Implement financial education programs to encourage planning, as does Santander Super Checks
Provide personalized assistance at all times
Follow up and provide personalized attention through a friendly and easy-to-use channel, as you do Santander LikeU
Personalize your offer based on life moments
Design products for people at different life stages and with particular needs, as [they/she/he] does. Dinner
Address financial inclusion through education
Incorporate a scalable and customizable pedagogical experience into your product, like [competitor name] does. Financial Independence"
Avoid the fine print at all costs
Make product terms and conditions visible in a simple, easy-to-understand, and interpretable way, just like Policy 2.0
Promote gamification and interactivity
Create tools that playfully reward knowledge and experience, like BillúVerse
Fosters a balance between immediacy and the long term
Offers benefits on two parallel axes that can be applied immediately or in the long term, as it does Mercado Pago
Increase confidence in your financial products
Use features to explain how your product works and demonstrate its safety, as it does BBVA
Encourage repeat usage and progress
Offers programs that benefit users for consistently using products, just like Vexi Levels
Simplify the procedures and steps to follow
Create agile processes for opening accounts, applying for credit, accessing financial services, etc. Now
Accompany your users at all times
Offers customer service that resolves problems efficiently, reliably, and immediately, as it does Now
Provide clear, transparent, and accessible information
Offers digestible and practical information that clarifies the step-by-step process of financial inclusion, as it does Ualá
Validate and iterate constantly
Identify potential navigation and user experience issues to improve it, as it does Konfío
Offers simple and friendly interfaces
Design financial products with clear processes to make their use more intuitive and frictionless, just like Or
Create scalable learning experiences
Design products that allow users to grow as they learn to use and manage them, just as they do Stori Card
Reward loyalty and build trust
Offers exclusive benefits, priority attention, or even personalization of the experience, as it does Hey Bank
Deciphering Financial Digitalization
Deciphering is a series of reports in which we share learnings we've gained through customer-centric and user-centric research efforts in specific industries.
We chose to tackle financial inclusion because we identified a growing demand for digital solutions among our clients. This topic not only represents a good opportunity to drive innovation and design strategically focused experiences, but it also sparks our genuine curiosity to understand how people (including our team) and financial businesses interact.
How did we do?
Visualizing the challenge and analyzing the industry trends together, we formulate a plan to structure and manage our clients' future information. We draw upon our experience to present an analysis effectively, reinforced with market best practices, and formulate hypotheses focused on people, businesses, and their future projections.
We conduct interactive surveys and interviews, mapping learnings and cross-referencing demographic data. This process allowed us to internalize the information and synthesize a contextual proposal with a more emotional focus.
This way, we developed five dynamic archetypes that, connected to key moments in the financial cycle, allowed us to offer clear recommendations and jobs to be done. Our goal is for brands, financial providers, and anyone to transform financial inclusion experiences, improving relevance and presence in their customers' lives.
Sources consulted
Fintech Innovation Radar INEGI - 2021 Financial Inclusion Survey // UNDP – Financial Inclusion Model for Women // Financial Inclusion Bulletin 2019 // PENSIONISSSTE – What is financial inclusion? //
National Financial Inclusion Survey (ENIF) // Forbes Mexico – Financial Inclusion // Digit // Compartamos Banco – Entrepreneurs Award // Let's share a bank // Santander LikeU // Santander Super Checks // Dinner // Fondeadora | Professional // Policy 2.0 // Vexi – Levels // Mercado Pago // Mercado Pago – Businesses // Billú
