Takeaways after the EMERGE “Voices of Change” Financial Health Conference
When I told my Uber driver we were headed to the EMERGE conference led by the Financial Health Network last month, his response summed it up – this country must prioritize financial health and education. And he wasn’t exaggerating. This month, the Public Policy Institute of California released a new research report that describes the incredible financial insecurity experienced by many California households. And even with that steady and significant risk, financial literacy – the knowledge and understanding that enable sound financial decision-making and effective management of personal finances – remains incredibly low with little change or improvement the past several years.
Even without this data, it feels like each of us knows at least one person who is particularly vulnerable or already living through the difficulties that come with financial insecurity. And we know how financial hardship can affect everything in a person’s life – their mental health, physical health, caretaking for the young and old, job performance. Knowing all this, it was easy to approach EMERGE with a mix of skepticism –incentives can be misaligned when it comes to helping those who need it most – and hope – that there are always super smart people working hard to fix big problems.
The conference sessions are available and we offer a few takeaways from IBSI:
- Definitions and standards matter. What does it mean for someone to be financially healthy or financially vulnerable? The Financial Health Network has a tool for that – the Financial Health Score Toolkit. The goal is simple – understand more about the financial health of clients, employees, parents, children and act where needed. What standards should exist for financial services that aim to build and maintain financial health? The Financial Health Network has a tool for that – the Financial Health Standards Toolkit. Common language and frameworks that define financial health can support various actors – who may have different incentives – work toward common goals.
- Focus on the basics. Yes, innovations in fintech are exciting, but at the heart of financial services for financial health are a few simple rules: spend responsibly based on a budget, build and use credit wisely, insure against risk, and save for an emergency. And a fundamental north star – it is dangerous to expand financial access without financial literacy and ongoing education. Financial literacy and ongoing education are required for everyone, but particularly the vulnerable populations who some fintech innovations seek to bring into financial services for the first time. It was encouraging to hear these themes repeated across sessions.
- Being human-centered requires high quality data and a willingness to learn. Several sessions demonstrated the increasingly human-centered design approach to financial services. At the heart of these sessions were two themes. First, financial service providers need and are collecting more rigorous and continuous data – about attitudes, knowledge, behavior – on people they want to reach and serve. Second, service providers must be willing to learn and change existing services and systems based on what that data says. This theme was best captured in one session that discussed one bank’s experience with adapting and integrating a Financial Health Score into their systems to inform an understanding of their clients and to develop and improve services for financial health.
- Earn trust. Banks have a long history of not prioritizing clients’ financial health over profits. Insurance companies have a long history of not prioritizing clients’ financial health over profits. Government has a long history of not striking the right balance between special interests and the public. These actions erode trust in institutions. Recognizing this and the need to earn trust for better service delivery informed two more themes. First, across an ever-changing landscape, how are service providers clearly identifying themselves – do clients know when their bank is a bank or a neobank? How do we make sure through evolving financial education? Second, while more rigorous and continuous data on consumers can support better service design and delivery, what is in place to mitigate the misuse of that data? Much attention has been paid over the years to the need for responsible personal data management and sharing in open banking practices – such as efforts led by the CFPB on Personal Financial Data Rights – and yet we are now seeing shifts in these regulations. There was much discussion about the need for trust – and much left to be seen regarding how service providers will build and earn trust that will not be given blindly.
- Care about and measure real impacts on lives. Throughout the conference, discussions used similar terms about the expected impacts of financial health and well-being: power, freedom, agency, self-efficacy. While the financial services industry focuses on more data to inform their service delivery – while always keeping an eye on keeping those services profitable – there is a real need for investing in systems to measure how these changes in financial services impact people’s lives. Do we see improvements in financial health? Do these improvements in financial health lead to our real goals related to personal freedom, agency, and self-efficacy?
What do these takeaways mean for IBSI?
- IBSI research – We look for opportunities to apply rigorous social science methods to understanding how financial services can be more inclusive and what impact that inclusion has on social and economic outcomes. Over the last five years, the Lab for Inclusive FinTech (LIFT) has provided seed funding for 34 research projects and counting. This portfolio includes a range of topics – from new measures of creditworthiness to how to use creative tools to expand access to credit to using artificial intelligence to provide personalized messages to last-mile fintech agents to understanding how firms’ trust in fintech providers can affect take-up of services to innovations in data privacy protection to understanding who enrolls in financial education and how effective personal finance education is on key behaviors. We see a lot of overlap in our existing portfolio and the learning needs of institutions aiming to be more inclusive and are looking for ways to expand our focus on personal finance and literacy.
- IBSI programs – IBSI hosts two youth focused programs – BOOST and BBAY. Each includes sessions on personal finance. In 2025-2026, IBSI and BBAY will review the existing curriculum and refine materials to align with the broader California state government objectives to strengthen youth financial literacy through AB2927 (2023-2024). We are committed to building an evidence-based curriculum and continuing to learn and innovate on it to ensure IBSI contributes to broader efforts to improve financial health through financial education.
- Haas entrepreneurs & graduates – We hear from current students who are eager to lead innovations across industries – including financial services and fintech. We also consistently see demand for values-based, sustainable business leadership from our Haas School of Business students – both undergraduate and graduate – and their engagement with our colleagues at the Center for Responsible Business (CRB), Equity & Gender in Leadership (EGAL), Center for Social Sector Leadership (CSSL), and the Sustainable & Impact Finance (SAIF). It’s important for us to elevate critical discussions – such as the ones at EMERGE focused on balancing profit with purpose – with our students and alumni.
After three days of engaging sessions, there is reason to remain a hopeful skeptic – knowing that many of us are working toward higher standards, using data and evidence to do better, recognizing our roles to build and earn trust, and elevating values-based work.
Any thoughts? Connect with us at [email protected].
