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Consumer Outcomes

A financial sector that works for consumers has a suite of products and features that are suitable to consumers’ needs, are safe from cybercrime and that protect consumers’ privacy. Ideally, empowered consumers exercise an informed choice, understand the information disclosed to them, and have their voice heard in their interaction with financial services providers and agents.

The reality is often different. Cenfri’s consumer outcomes work aims to bridge the gap. We have worked with Consumers International, CGAP, GIZ, FSD Kenya, FSCA South Africa and the SADC Secretariat. Our track record includes policy briefs, regional consumer protection guidelines, financial inclusion measurement, measurement of consumer outcomes, and country-level consumer protection technical assistance.

We also have a significant body of work on behavioural science and its application in the financial sector.
Consumer Outcomes

Using behavioural interventions to improve uptake and usage of financial products

Astute business executives know that their customers are not the rational decision makers that economic models presume them to be. People often make suboptimal decisions that don’t reflect their needs or best interests. For instance, customers overspend on their credit cards, fail to save enough for retirement or don’t take up insurance products to mitigate future risks. Designing financial products and services for this behaviour can be a challenge.  

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31 October, 2017
Consumer Outcomes

Mining the gap: Financial inclusion and gender

The importance of data for closing the financial inclusion gender gap. The 2014 Global Findex Report identified that in developing economies, women are 9% less likely to be formally banked than men, with 59% of men and 50% of women having bank accounts. The financial inclusion community is actively addressing this gap, but

Read More »
23 October, 2017
Consumer Outcomes

Closing the gap between uptake and usage of financial products

Why is it that 80 percent of bank account holders in Madagascar only use their accounts once a month or less? What makes the parents of a child requiring unforeseen medical treatment in the DRC choose to approach their mutualitée (a local form of informal mutual aid society) for a

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10 October, 2017
Jumping to conclusions
Consumer Outcomes

Jumping to conclusions

Have you heard of the Fosbury Flop? Probably not. But you’d know one if you saw it. It’s the technique that high jumpers use when jumping back-first over high bars, commonly seen at the Olympics. It wasn’t always the accepted way of doing things, of course. Previously, athletes approached the

Read More »
13 October, 2016
Equal access in ASEAN – illusion or reality?
Consumer Outcomes

Equal access in ASEAN – illusion or reality?

This blog series stimulates a broader discussion on gendered financial inclusion in ASEAN. We examine why women’s access to financial services does not necessarily equate gendered usage. We further explore whether the value that women derive from financial services is impacted by the provider they access them from. It is

Read More »
22 July, 2016
Consumer Outcomes

Completing the picture in ASEAN

This blog series seeks to generate a broader discussion on the data that is needed to close the gender gap in financial inclusion in ASEAN. A previous blog post argued that the headline data available on financial inclusion in the ASEAN region – the percentage of women with access to

Read More »
6 June, 2016
Consumer Outcomes

i2i brochure

The availability of data in financial inclusion has grown tremendously in recent years. Data initiatives such as the World Bank’s Findex, FinMark Trust’s Finscope, IMF’s Financial Access Surveys, AFI’s Core Set, GPFI’s Basic Set, MIX Market’s Finclusion Lab, as well as countless studies driven at a national level, have played a critical role in deepening our understanding

Read More »
15 January, 2016
Consumer Outcomes

Women on the move: Harnessing the economic forces of cross-border mobility in ASEAN

Financial services, including savings accounts and investments into capital assets such as land, have traditionally excluded women in the ASEAN region. Evidence shows that including them can greatly influence the intergenerational wealth of their families. This report focuses on the role played by remittances in achieving broader development objectives with

Read More »
10 September, 2015
Consumer Outcomes

Using behavioural interventions to improve uptake and usage of financial products

Astute business executives know that their customers are not the rational decision makers that economic models presume them to be. People often make suboptimal decisions that don’t reflect their needs or best interests. For instance, customers overspend on their credit cards, fail to save enough for retirement or don’t take

31 October, 2017
Consumer Outcomes

Mining the gap: Financial inclusion and gender

The importance of data for closing the financial inclusion gender gap. The 2014 Global Findex Report identified that in developing economies, women are 9% less likely to be formally banked than men, with 59% of men and 50% of women having bank accounts. The financial inclusion community is actively addressing this gap, but

23 October, 2017
Consumer Outcomes

Closing the gap between uptake and usage of financial products

Why is it that 80 percent of bank account holders in Madagascar only use their accounts once a month or less? What makes the parents of a child requiring unforeseen medical treatment in the DRC choose to approach their mutualitée (a local form of informal mutual aid society) for a

10 October, 2017
Jumping to conclusions
Consumer Outcomes

Jumping to conclusions

Have you heard of the Fosbury Flop? Probably not. But you’d know one if you saw it. It’s the technique that high jumpers use when jumping back-first over high bars, commonly seen at the Olympics. It wasn’t always the accepted way of doing things, of course. Previously, athletes approached the

13 October, 2016
Equal access in ASEAN – illusion or reality?
Consumer Outcomes

Equal access in ASEAN – illusion or reality?

This blog series stimulates a broader discussion on gendered financial inclusion in ASEAN. We examine why women’s access to financial services does not necessarily equate gendered usage. We further explore whether the value that women derive from financial services is impacted by the provider they access them from. It is

22 July, 2016
Consumer Outcomes

Completing the picture in ASEAN

This blog series seeks to generate a broader discussion on the data that is needed to close the gender gap in financial inclusion in ASEAN. A previous blog post argued that the headline data available on financial inclusion in the ASEAN region – the percentage of women with access to

6 June, 2016
Consumer Outcomes

i2i brochure

The availability of data in financial inclusion has grown tremendously in recent years. Data initiatives such as the World Bank’s Findex, FinMark Trust’s Finscope, IMF’s Financial Access Surveys, AFI’s Core Set, GPFI’s Basic Set, MIX Market’s Finclusion Lab, as well as countless studies driven at a national level, have played a critical role in deepening our understanding

15 January, 2016
Consumer Outcomes

Women on the move: Harnessing the economic forces of cross-border mobility in ASEAN

Financial services, including savings accounts and investments into capital assets such as land, have traditionally excluded women in the ASEAN region. Evidence shows that including them can greatly influence the intergenerational wealth of their families. This report focuses on the role played by remittances in achieving broader development objectives with

10 September, 2015