Priority 2 Build and provide for diverse needs

The aim of this priority is to encourage stakeholders to use tailored approaches to better serve the financial needs of diverse audiences.

PRIORITY 2 - TARGET OUTCOMES

Target outcome 2.1

More Canadians have access to, and use, financial products and services that are tailored to their needs, vulnerabilities, and resource constraints.

Target outcome 2.2

More Canadians, particularly those with diverse needs or one or more forms of vulnerability, are involved and consulted in the development and delivery of financial products and services, which in turn leads to higher levels of inclusion.

Target outcome 2.3

Fewer Canadians experience a low quality of service (including disrespect or not being offered a product or service appropriate for their needs) when accessing financial products or services.

WHAT FCAC WILL DO

  • Lead by example in tailoring financial literacy content, programs, communications, and experimental interventions to meet the needs of diverse population groups.
  • Conduct ongoing research and analysis to identify and understand diverse needs of target population groups who are at greater risk of experiencing financial vulnerabilities.
  • Collaborate and engage with community-based organizations serving diverse audiences to user-test and develop resources to serve their audiences.
Related findings
Finding

1 in 5 Canadians are DIY investors. DIY investing is more popular among racialized Canadians (28%) than it is among non-racialized Canadians (18%).

Initiative: Investor Survey

Adopter: Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization

Finding

40% of workshop participants opened tax-free savings accounts for emergency savings.

Initiative: A targeted savings program

Adopter: Anonymous organization

Finding

About 5% of Canadians reported that they could not access insurance.

Initiative: Free independent ecosystem reports

Adopter: Financial Resilience Institute

Finding

Canadians who experienced personal health challenges or major life events had fewer investable assets.

Initiative: Investor Survey

Adopter: Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization

Finding

If provided with an opportunity to speak to a financial advisor about one topic, Canadians ranked investing first, followed by retirement and budgeting.

Initiative: QUBER App

Adopter: QUBER

Finding

In 2021, one in five Canadians with a health condition said their condition made it difficult to deal with their bank.

Initiative: Survey of Consumers' Awareness of their Financial Rights and Responsibilities

Adopter: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Finding

In Ontario, 1 in 10 consumers reported being offered a product with unreasonable terms, suggesting credit history, income/savings, and age were the main reasons for such offers. Credit cards and insurance products were those most commonly identified.

Initiative: 2022 Consumer Research Study

Adopter: Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario

Finding

In Ontario, 1 in 3 consumers (33%) reported experiencing an issue with financial service providers; poor customer service was the most common issue reported (16%).

Initiative: 2022 Consumer Research Study

Adopter: Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario

Finding

In Ontario, nearly 1 in 6 consumers (15%) reported being refused a financial product or service, with credit history, income, and savings being the most cited reasons for the refusal. Credit products were the financial product most commonly refused.

Initiative: 2022 Consumer Research Study

Adopter: Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario

Finding

Nearly 11% of Canadians reported that they could not access affordable credit.

Initiative: Free independent ecosystem reports

Adopter: Financial Resilience Institute

Finding

Of people who said it was too complicated to open an RDSP, 29% cited complications filling in the tax forms and 44% had complications visiting the bank to open a plan.

Initiative: Survey on Savings for Persons with Disabilities

Adopter: Statistics Canada

Finding

Racialized Canadians are more likely to self-report having a higher risk tolerance (16%) compared to other Canadians (6%).

Initiative: Investor Survey

Adopter: Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization

Finding

The most common reasons given for not opening an RDSP were: 1) not having enough money to save (46%); 2) lacking information about the RDSP program (29%); and 3) feeling it was too complicated (15%).

Initiative: Survey on Savings for Persons with Disabilities

Adopter: Statistics Canada

Related measures
Use the Opens in new tabMeasures Library to search for Strategy-Aligned Measures (SAMs) that help stakeholders in the financial ecosystem track progress toward achieving the National Strategy's target outcomes for more details.
Related initiatives
Initiative

2022 Consumer Research Study

The Consumer Research study, that consisted of 4,000 adults from Ontario, provides an important opportunity for FSRA to better understand consumer attitudes (e.g., trust, satisfaction), engagement with regulated financial services (e.g., consumer knowledge, behaviours), and consumer characteristics, including vulnerability. The study will enable FSRA to, over time, monitor the impact of market changes, industry responses, and regulatory efforts on consumers, members, and beneficiaries.

Adopter: Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario

Initiative

A targeted savings program

A program designed to help low-income individuals achieve financial stability through savings and workshops.

Adopter: Anonymous organization

Initiative

CPA Canada survey

CPA Canada conducts nationally representative surveys annually to examine people’s attitudes and feelings towards their personal finances. The surveys help monitor how Canadians are handling new financial realities, managing financial stressors, and engaging in personal financial planning.

Adopter: Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada

Initiative

Fintech Cadence programs

Fintech Cadence supports the financial literacy ecosystem—and, in turn, promotes increased digital access and digital literacy—by helping to build and sustain the Fintech community. They promote the education of Fintech talent, support early-stage start-ups, and develop collaborations with financial institutions to help solve industry challenges. They track the FinTechs in Canada, their areas of specialty, what kinds of products and services they provide, as well as details about their target audiences.

Adopter: Fintech Cadence

Initiative

Free independent ecosystem reports

The Financial Resilience Institute engages in regular data collection, analytics and publishing of free independent ecosystem reports on the financial resilience, financial health and financial well-being of Canadians and more financially vulnerable populations, plus Canadians’ financial inclusion and access-to-help challenges. This includes measurement and tracking of household financial resilience through the Institute’s peer reviewed Seymour Financial Resilience Index® and Financial Well-Being studies instruments.

Adopter: Financial Resilience Institute

Initiative

Investor Survey

The objective of the national investor survey is to help CIRO understand the attitudes, knowledge, beliefs and behaviours of Canadians, particularly Canadian investors.

Adopter: Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization

Initiative

QUBER App

QUBER is a personal finance app that encourages saving and learning through gamification. They use savings challenges, lotteries, and matched savings programs to nudge people to save more. Working with employers and Financial Institutions, they are able to capture key demographic and vulnerability-related information (e.g., people without emergency funds or those living paycheque-to-paycheque), as well as Strategy-Aligned Measures on the success, and number, of users completing challenges. They track saving amounts, frequencies, retention, fees paid, and confidence levels.

Adopter: QUBER

Initiative

SAFE Women

SAFE Women is a professional development training course to help financial literacy educators understand and apply trauma- and violence-informed approaches (TVIA) when supporting women.

Adopter: Families Canada

Initiative

Savings Circles

Savings Circles is an Individual Development Account (IDA) program that works with people in Calgary and surrounding area and Indigenous people within Treaty 7 Territory who are living on lower incomes and striving for more stability. For six months, participants commit to saving between $5 and $50 each month, engage in a minimum of two individual meetings with the facilitator, and attend seven money management workshops. Monthly during the program, a participant’s savings are matched 3:1. This allows them to save up to $1,200 to purchase a productive and meaningful asset that will make a difference in the quality of their life.

Adopter: Momentum

Initiative

Survey of Consumers' Awareness of their Financial Rights and Responsibilities

The Survey of Consumers' Awareness of their Financial Rights and Responsibilities gathers evidence of certain financial rights and responsibilities, highlights potential gaps in consumers’ awareness of certain financial risks identified in the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's industry review of bank sales practices, and assesses results against the baseline established in 2019.

Adopter: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Initiative

Survey on Savings for Persons with Disabilities

The Survey on Savings for Persons with Disabilities gathers information about the knowledge and behaviours of Canadians with disabilities and their caregivers with regard to savings.

Adopter: Statistics Canada

Related adopters
Adopter

Anonymous organization

Adopter

Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization

The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) is the pan-Canadian self-regulatory organization that oversees all investment dealers, mutual fund dealers, and trading activity on Canada’s debt and equity marketplaces. The Office of the Investor has a mandate to support policy development, educate investors, engage in investor outreach, perform investor research, and support the Investor Advisory Panel (IAP).

Adopter

Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada

Chartered Professional Accountants Canada (CPA Canada) is one of the largest national accounting organizations in the world, representing the Canadian accounting profession at the national and international levels. With over 220,000 members, CPA Canada supports the profession and acts in the public interest by promoting transparency in financial markets, preparing members for a rapidly evolving business environment and contributing to standard setting and public policy. Globally, it works together with international bodies to build a stronger accounting profession worldwide.

Adopter

Families Canada

Families Canada is the national association of family support centres. Its members are community-level organizations who provide hubs of free services, programs, and resources to primarily low-income and disadvantaged families in communities across Canada.

Adopter

Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) is an independent federal government agency responsible for protecting the rights and interests of consumers of financial products and services. It supervises federally regulated financial entities, such as banks, and strengthens the financial literacy of Canadians.

Adopter

Financial Resilience Institute

Financial Resilience Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the financial resilience and well-being of Canadians and global citizens. We partner with policymakers, financial institutions and business leaders to develop and implement solutions that improve financial resilience, health and well-being for all, including those who are more financially vulnerable.

Adopter

Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) is an independent agency created to improve consumer and pension plan beneficiary protections in Ontario. FSRA regulates a number of financial services sectors in Ontario including insurance, credit unions, mortgage brokers and pension plan administrators.

Adopter

Fintech Cadence

FinTech Cadence is a Montreal-based non-profit organization dedicated to building out Canada's financial technology (fintech) ecosystem by serving as the foundation for ambitious Canadian fintech leaders to build, grow, and scale bold solutions.

Adopter

Momentum

Momentum is a change-making organization in Calgary, Alberta, that connects people living on low incomes to economic opportunities. We act as a bridge in the community by taking an economic approach to poverty reduction and adding a social perspective to economic development initiatives. Momentum uses a Community Economic Development approach to reduce poverty and ensure our local economy includes opportunities for all Calgarians.

Adopter

QUBER

QUBER is an emergency savings benefit that allows organizations to offer their employees/members a unique matched savings program.

Adopter

Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada is the national statistical office. The agency ensures Canadians have the key information on Canada's economy, society and environment that they require to function effectively as citizens and decision makers.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada does not endorse, directly or indirectly, any adopters of the Measurement Plan, nor does it make any representations or warranties, express or implied, concerning the adopters' products or services or their fitness for a particular purpose.

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