Women are significantly less likely to use formal banking services than men, due to a range of barriers to access and use. A lack of gender-disaggregated data makes it difficult to identify specific ways in which women may interact with financial products and services differently than men. One area that is little understood is what influences women’s decisions around enrolment in, or use of, financial products. A growing number of studies in the field of behavioural science are examining factors that influence financial decisions.

This paper, produced in partnership with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), explores the effectiveness of various behavioural interventions that could reasonably be applied by financial services providers. It first examines the evidence on interventions that influence savings, credit, payments and insurance decisions by all adults. It then focuses specifically on interventions that show promise to improve service delivery for women.

insight2impact (i2ifacility) was funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The programme was established and driven by Cenfri and Finmark Trust.