ACurrently, 15% of bank customers are at the mercy of the unexpected, and have very little control over their future: they have no savings, no debt, no medium-term projects. They are, in the eyes of the banks, extremely “passive” customers.
We are not dealing here with people in a situation of great poverty or over-indebtedness, often – in fact – excluded from the banking system, but socially integrated customers, with a bank account, but who have modest incomes and feel incapable when it comes to money matters. . These two characteristics are very often linked and pose a particular problem in a situation like the one we are going through.
Our work shows that banks would benefit from offering specific support to this 15% of vulnerable customers, to help them protect themselves from the whims of life and gradually improve their situation (“Financial vulnerability among retail bank customers in Europe “, Behavioral Finance Working Group ConferenceLondon, June 2022).
Adapted services
The challenge is first of all to encourage these customers to save regularly – even small amounts, to allow them to get into debt – even on a small scale, so that they can then carry out some of the projects that are important to them: from the passing of the driving license or the purchase of a first vehicle for the little ones to finance the studies of their children or grandchildren …
This vulnerable clientele could be easily identified by banking institutions according to a vulnerability scale that links socio-demographic criteria (age, sex, marital status, etc.) and criteria of financial capacity. Forced to pass questionnaires to all their customers who invest in risky products (MiFID directive), banks could, without difficulty, interrogate all their customers more broadly by adjusting the documents.
By leveraging this information, banks would then be able to offer customers identified as vulnerable appropriate services that would help them better control their financial situation.
Account aggregators have been created in recent years by start-ups. They allow customers who, through promotional operations, have found themselves in charge of multiple bank current accounts to already have a panoramic view of their assets. Likewise, simulation tools, through applications, can help vulnerable customers safely project themselves into the future.
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