The rules shaping financial wellness

A wave of new fintechs as well as product announcements from incumbents suggest that financial wellness is more than a passing trend—it’s a metric that financial players of all stripes are taking seriously. But a slew of variables, both internal and regulatory, will shape fintech and finance’s efforts to solve for financial wellness, and how consumers experience these efforts in turn: 

Defining wellness

A precondition for acting thoughtfully on financial wellness is defining what it is and what outcomes fall under its purview. At present, many players present bespoke and branded ideas of what financial wellness is. Mindful money management platform Aura, for example, highlights the idea of “financial mindfulness,” which it describes “awareness and non-judgmental acceptance of one’s financial situation.”

According to Courtney Cardin, Aura’s Co-Founder, many US consumers can engage in high-awareness or high-acceptance practices, but often lack the ability to merge the two. A consumer can be high-acceptance by putting their credit card bill on autopay, for example, while a different consumer—representing the 33% of US bank customers who do so—might check their bank account every day.

But other relevant fintechs and FIs may foreground other variables, which complicates sector-wide coordination—let alone state coordination—on consumers’ financial wellness. Credit scores are one part of the outcome, for example, as are other variables like net worth or employment status. How to assemble stakeholders to define financial wellness is easier said than done, of course, but financial wellness could be the focus of intentional public-private discussion and eventual measurement through standards and public input mechanisms.

Real-time data

At present, financial wellness-oriented products are stymied by delays in the inputs driving crucial decisions. “Imagine if you’re going to your physician and they’re giving you feedback on health data from last year,” Alem Sendaba, COO at Array, told The Financial Revolutionist. “It’s not going to help you get better quicker.” 

While Array’s new debt-management solution provides real-time data on consumer debt, regulators could also assist the sector writ large—including Array’s competitors—by encouraging real-time data on users’ credit scores and loan status as a default operational practice. 

Crypto clarity

Finally, many consumers are moving into alternative assets as a way to make markets work for them. What products they use has changed significantly in the face of crypto volatility—but consumers continue to operate in an uncertain regulatory environment, in which certain forms of cryptocurrency are labeled as securities and others are not. Meanwhile, some pump-and-dump schemes continue unabated, leading to major financial losses and negative wellness-oriented outcomes.

To ensure longer-term thinking among retail investors and other consumers, regulators must offer timely and clear judgments on alternative assets, especially crypto, helping diversify the portfolio through which everyday consumers can improve their financial wellbeing.