The Unbankables: Assessing financial literacy and financial behavior of BPI Globe BanKO customers

• Main Author: Torrente, Maria Francesca V.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2015
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5076
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Philippines is geared towards achieving full financial inclusion, catering to the unbanked and underserved sector of society. Financial inclusivity gap remains to be a challenge being addressed by the government with the help of financial institutions and technological innovations. This study assessed how personal characteristics and customer are related with financial literacy and financial management behaviour/practices. It described how personal and customer characteristics of BPI Globe BanKO customers from Metro Manila related with their level of financial literacy. It looked at how their level of financial literacy is related with their financial management behavior/practices. Findings show that personal characteristics are significantly related with the level of financial literacy and financial management behaviour/practices at p<.05. Customer characteristics are also highly significantly related with the level of financial literacy and financial management behavior at p<.01. Accessibility, affordability, convenience, and relevance are important factors in financially engaging the unbanked and underserved. BanKO account holders have a high level of financial literacy, indicating that they are 83% correct when it comes to knowledge on savings, budget, investment, and credit. Meanwhile, they also have good financial management behaviour/practices indicating that they spend wisely, save, budget, invest, plan/set financial goals avail loans 77% of the time. Overall, financial literacy determines financial management behavior/practices and have a strong relationship, indicating that as literacy increases, so does behavior.