Publications and research
Capable and confident consumers
Our 2006 financial capability survey 'Establishing a Baseline', shows that even after lower incomes and limited experience are taken into account, those in the 18-40 age group are less financially capable than their elders. Yet it is this group that today faces greater individual financial responsibilities.
The National Strategy for Financial Capability aims to remedy this, combining long-term measures to lay the foundations for sustained improvement over time and shorter-term measures for a more immediate impact. We also intend to repeat the survey every four to five years. The next one will be in 2010/11.
Over time, improving people's financial capability will enable them to exert a stronger influence in the retail markets, creating more effective and efficient markets and reducing the need for regulatory intervention.
To find out more about our Baseline Survey (March 2006) see:
- Levels of Financial Capability in the UK: Results of a baseline survey [PDF]
- Financial Capability baseline survey: methodological report [PDF]
- Financial Capability baseline survey: questionnaire [PDF]
Strategic Documents
- Joint Financial Capability Action Plan [PDF]
- Delivering Change [PDF]
- Establishing a Baseline [PDF]
- 2008/09 Financial Capability targets [PDF]
- FSA Business Plan 2008/09 [PDF]
Financial capability academic literature reviews
We have published two academic literature reviews, commissioned on our behalf by the FSA's Strategy & Risk division. These reviews consider financial capability evaluation. In particular:
- global financial capability initiatives' policy evaluation evidence [PDF]; and
- behavioural economics literature on the impact of financial capability initiatives on behaviour [PDF]
Please see Briefing on financial capability literature reviews for an overview and Q&A on the literature reviews.

