Changing financial behaviors using mobile PFM tools

This paper investigates the needs of a PFM (Personal Financial Management) tool in a projected banking app, where information is presented as statistics of the users’ personal economy. By studying how youths would like to monitor their finances in a banking app the paper aims to investigate what a PFM tool could include to attract consumers to use it in order to get a better control of their finances. The question of the paper is therefore: How can a banking app containing a PFM contribute to greater awareness of the users’ finances and savings, and how should such an app be designed? User tests were made to investigate what kind of statistics the users want in a PFM tool in a mobile app. The Delphi method was used to get a ranked list of ten suggestions, and a focus group interview was conducted to analyze the results further and to contribute to a qualitative view of the paper. The test results together with previous research show that a PFM tool included in a banking app could attract the target group to monitor their money, and also encourage them to save more. The respondents would like to have general statistics over their economy in a PFM tool, but also the possibility to monthly set personal budgets and monitor how well they are respected