Setting the Standard for Financial Health Starts with Data Access

“We need more than good intentions. We need standards.”

This one was one of the key points from Financial Health Network’s CEO Jennifer Tescher at the recent EMERGE conference when the Network unveiled its new FinHealth Standards, the first framework to help businesses build better financial health solutions. 

The reality is that the majority of Americans struggle financially and money remains the top source of stress for consumers. Consumers and regulators are looking to financial providers to help them close this gap. According to the Financial Health Network, the “FinHealth Standards offer a path to meaningful change. By embedding financial health into product design and delivery, the Standards are shifting industry practice and helping institutions turn commitment into impact.” 

Many of the FinHealth Standards, as well as conversations throughout the EMERGE conference, tie back to one critical component — enabling consumers to seamlessly access and share their financial data. 

Here’s a deeper look at a few of those key themes from the EMERGE conference and how they tie back to the need for consistent, safe consumer-permissioned data sharing. 

Empowering Consumer Choice

In Poverty by America, the author says, “Poverty isn't simply the condition of not having enough money. It's the condition of not having enough choice and being taken advantage of because of that.” 

When individuals and communities have access to — and can effectively use — a range of financial services, it fosters better financial health, promotes economic empowerment, and reduces inequality. We can help break down barriers to financial access — and arm consumers with personalized advice and intelligent tools — by leveraging consumer-permissioned data more effectively. As we’ve shared before, we see this in the work that our clients do to use consumer-permissioned data to support those customers with the personalized advice and insights they want to help them better manage their finances. 

Enabling Holistic Financial Health

Several conversations during EMERGE centered on how to look at financial health more holistically both within financial institutions and for consumers. The majority of consumers have multiple financial apps, accounts, and providers. In fact, most consumers have 3+ finance-related apps — and some have upwards of 10 or more, according to MX research. 

As a result, very few consumers — and few financial providers — have a complete picture of their finances in one place. This makes it difficult for consumers to manage their money. It also means financial providers can’t deliver the best experiences for consumers with only a fraction of the picture. To truly enable holistic financial health, you need a holistic financial picture. 

Building Customer-Centric Outcomes

EMERGE speakers continually shared their personal stories of financial stress, resilience, and the relationships they’ve built with financial providers to reach their financial goals. Better data access is critical to delivering positive customer outcomes like these. And, better data management doesn’t just lead to happier customers — it also increases engagement and retention and drives growth from increased deposits, loan volume, and number of accounts opened 

We see tremendous opportunity to leverage these FinHealth standards alongside data-sharing standards from the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) as a powerful driver of positive, data-driven financial outcomes for consumers. Whether mandated in regulation or driven by an industry-led effort, we believe the implementation of safe, secure, standardized APIs to enable consumers to share their data on their terms will be important for financial health now and in the future. 

At MX, we’re excited to work with the Financial Health Network and our clients on how to put these FinHealth Standards into action using the power of data-driven experiences and insights.