To further advance the development of financial health in China, it is imperative to uphold the "trinity" of theoretical innovation, practical translation, and ecosystem synergy, and build an organic ecosystem featuring multi‑stakeholder collaboration and sustainable progress.
Author: Duoguang Bei, Liming Hou
Editor: Zhi Fengyin
Publication: China Finance, Issue 4, 2026
In 2023, the issuance of the State Council's Implementation Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Inclusive Finance marked a pivotal transition in China’s inclusive finance journey—from the 1.0 phase focused on “expanding coverage breadth” to the 2.0 new stage oriented toward “enhancing service depth.” The core objective is to strengthen the public’s sense of gain, happiness, and security in accessing financial services. In 2025, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee outlined the blueprint for “accelerating the construction of a financial powerhouse” and emphasized advancing inclusive finance as one of the “five key articles” in financial work.
The emergence and practical application of the concept of “financial health” could not have come at a more opportune time. As an advanced form of inclusive finance development, financial health focuses on whether micro-level individuals and households can “smoothly manage daily income and expenditures, steadily cope with financial shocks, comprehensively prepare for future goals, and maintain a sense of control and confidence over their financial lives.”
This concept serves not only as the core benchmark for measuring the ultimate effectiveness of financial services but also as a critical link connecting the financial well-being of micro entities with macroeconomic and financial stability. It profoundly aligns with the intrinsic logic of China’s inclusive finance transformation—from solving the question of “whether services exist” to pursuing “how good these services are.”
Global Consensus and Contemporary Value of Financial Health
The rise of financial health is by no means accidental. It represents a strategic choice born out of profound global reflection on financial development models in response to an increasingly complex economic environment.
First, it stems from a critical inquiry into the quality of inclusive finance development. Over the past decade, global inclusive finance has achieved remarkable progress in improving access to financial services. According to the 2025 data from the Global Findex Database, 76% of adults worldwide now hold a bank or mobile money account, representing a 28-percentage-point increase since 2011. However, widespread “access” has not automatically translated into effective “usage” or positive “outcomes.” Data reveal that in low- and middle-income economies, only about 34% of adults could sustain their household’s daily expenses for more than two months using savings if they lost their primary source of income, while 19% could not even cover two weeks. Meanwhile, issues such as erroneous transactions, unexpected fees, and disengagement from financial services due to lack of confidence remain prevalent. This indicates that although certain groups have technically “reached” the financial system, they may still fall into situations of financial fragility or even over-indebtedness due to mismatched financial products, insufficient financial literacy, or external shocks. Therefore, shifting the focus of inclusive finance from quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement has become a global consensus, with financial health serving as the core dimension for measuring this quality.
Second, a broad policy consensus has emerged both internationally and domestically. On the international stage, financial health has rapidly evolved into a critical cross-sectoral policy objective. In 2020, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, serving as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), spearheaded the establishment of a Working Group on Financial Health to drive global discussions on its definition and measurement standards. In the same year, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identified financial health as the ultimate goal of financial literacy in its Recommendation of the Council on Financial Literacy, and subsequently incorporated it in 2022 as one of the three cross-cutting themes in the revised G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection. In 2024, the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) released the G20 Policy Note on Financial Health, providing the first global policy framework for the concept. Domestically, the policy landscape has also shown high-level attention. In 2022, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) formally introduced and elaborated on the concept of “financial health” for the first time in its Analysis Report on China’s Inclusive Finance Indicators (2021), calling for robust planning and promotion of financial health initiatives. In 2023, five departments, including the PBOC and the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Financial Support for Comprehensively Advancing Rural Revitalization and Accelerating the Building of a Strong Agricultural Country. This document explicitly proposed “accelerating the construction of consumer financial health,” integrating it organically with financial education and the protection of financial consumer rights, marking the beginning of the financial health concept being embedded into the concrete deployment of national financial policies.
Third, it is grounded in its profound, multi-dimensional value. Financial health acts as a critical link connecting micro-level well-being with macro-level stability. For individuals and households, it is the financial cornerstone for pursuing a better life and resisting life’s risks; for small and micro enterprises (SMEs), it is the core support for maintaining operational vitality and achieving sustainable development; for the macro economy, a society composed of financially healthy entities facilitates the release of domestic demand potential, fosters greater innovation vitality, and strengthens the overall resilience of the financial system. Furthermore, financial health is deeply intertwined with numerous United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—including poverty reduction, health, education, and gender equality—making it a vital benchmark for measuring inclusive growth and high-quality development.
Multi-Level Practices in Global Financial Health Development
Currently, financial health has evolved into a multi-layered, holistic development landscape worldwide, characterized by "international organizations leading consensus, national strategies adapting to local conditions, and market entities innovating implementation."
At the international organizational level, collaborative efforts are driving the transition of financial health from a conceptual framework to operational, measurable practices. In 2015, the Financial Health Network (FHN) in the United States pioneered a three-dimensional evaluation system encompassing day-to-day financial management, resilience and the ability to pursue opportunities. Subsequently, the organization proposed an expanded model tailored for developing countries, featuring six key indicators such as the balance of income and expenditure, reserve accumulation, and debt management. By emphasizing contextual factors such as income levels and cash flow volatility, this model promotes the localization and adaptation of measurement frameworks. Other institutions have also developed distinctive assessment tools: the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) introduced a standardized index in 2017, providing a concise quantitative benchmark for cross-national and cross-group comparisons; the Norwegian Consumer Council constructed a three-dimensional model of "financial commitment, comfort, and resilience," strengthening the integrated analysis of behavioral and psychological states. In recent years, the UNSGSA Working Group and the G20 GPFI have worked to establish globally compatible conceptual frameworks and measurement roadmaps, laying the foundation for national policymaking and international collaboration.
At the national policy level, diverse strategic and practical pathways are emerging. Many countries have elevated financial health to a national strategy or integrated it into core policy frameworks. For instance, in 2020, the UK's Money and Pensions Service published the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing setting five objectives to be achieved by 2030, aiming to systematically enhance national financial resilience and mitigate social issues arising from financial fragility. In 2021, Canada launched its Make Change that Counts: National Financial Literacy Strategy 2021-2026, with the core goal of improving national financial resilience, driving the transition of financial health from individual capacity building to ecosystem empowerment. In 2024, the United States released the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion in the United States: Fostering Financial Access, Resilience, and Well-Being for All , marking a shift in policy focus from "financial accessibility" to "deep empowerment" and committing to building a more resilient, equitable, and healthy financial ecosystem for all citizens. In 2025, Kenya introduced its National Financial Inclusion Strategy (2025-2028), with enhancing national financial health as its core objective. Additionally, leaders from countries such as Indonesia have publicly emphasized prioritizing financial health on the national agenda.
At the market practice level, financial institutions have emerged as key actors empowering financial health. Leading organizations are shifting the focus on enhancing client financial health from corporate social responsibility to a core business strategy. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) designs "nudge" tools through behavioral science research, such as "Money Plan" and "Bill Sense," to assist with budget management and bill forecasting, while optimizing credit card disclosure significantly improves client repayment behaviors. JPMorgan Chase's research institute in the United States continuously publishes frontier research reports on client financial health and wealth creation, providing insights for product and service design. Furthermore, an increasing number of banks are signing the Commitment to Financial Health and Inclusion under the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, integrating it into corporate governance and strategic planning.
Localized Exploration of Financial Health
Although China's financial health initiative started relatively late, it has developed rapidly, initially forming a multi-faceted and collaborative landscape driven by "policy attention, academic leadership, institutional exploration, and localized pilots. The Chinese Academy of Financial Inclusion (CAFI) at Renmin University of China, as a pioneer in this domestic field, has undertaken a series of foundational work.
In academic research and framework development, CAFI has laid the cornerstone for localization. Since systematically introducing the concept of financial health to China in 2019, CAFI established a measurement framework comprising four dimensions: daily income-expenditure management, financial resilience, future investment, and financial control. Based on this, CAFI developed the "China Consumer Financial Health Index." Leveraging this index, CAFI has conducted in-depth research:
Partnering with Ant Group to continuously track the financial health of Chinese consumers, revealing the financial characteristics and challenges faced by specific demographics.
Collaborating with CICC Wealth to focus on investor groups, validating the positive correlation between rational investment behaviors and higher levels of financial health.
Extending its research to micro and small enterprises (MSEs), CAFI constructed a three-dimensional analytical framework covering daily financial management, risk prevention/response, and capital management.
In a joint survey with WeBank, CAFI found that many MSEs face acute pain points such as overdue accounts receivable and insufficient insurance coverage.
Furthermore, CAFI partnered with the World Resources Institute (WRI) to integrate financial health modules into rural revitalization projects, exploring viable pathways for "empowering sustainable development through financial health."
In market practice，leading enterprises have carried out beneficial innovations in products and services. For example:
Ant Group established the industry's first systematic platform to promote financial health awareness. It launched the "Wealth Management Score" as a reference indicator for asset allocation rationality and developed tools like " Alipay Little Wallet " to assist with goal-oriented savings and shared expenses. The company is also actively exploring the use of AI technology to develop a "Financial Health Agent" capable of diagnosing financial health levels.
CICC Wealth promotes long-term and value-based investment philosophies through buyer-side advisory services like "Mutual Fund 50" and "ETF 50," aiming to enhance investors' financial resilience and well-being.
WeBank developed a self-assessment tool for MSE owners, attempting to embed health evaluations into credit services and customer accompaniment processes to help solidify their financial foundations and achieve stable operations.
These explorations reflect how domestic financial institutions are concretizing the concept of "customer-centricity" into practices that take responsibility for clients' financial outcomes.
In local regulatory practice, The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is driving the implementation of policy concepts through pilots. Municipal branches of the PBOC in Wuxi, Tongchuan, and Taizhou took the lead in conducting financial health assessments within their jurisdictions. They guide financial institutions to pay attention to and integrate these assessments into business processes, aiming to practice the concept of "Responsible Finance" at the source and empower clients to improve their financial health. These local pilots have accumulated valuable experience for nationwide promotion.
The Implementation Path for Building a Financial Health Ecosystem with Chinese Characteristics
Looking ahead, deepening the development of financial health in China requires adhering to the "Trinity" approach of theoretical innovation, practical transformation, and ecosystem synergy. We must build a multi-party, sustainable, and organic ecosystem.
First, deepen research in key areas and strengthen theoretical support as well as data insights. Future research could focus on the following aspects：
In-depth exploration of the transmission mechanisms and multiplier effects between financial health and macroeconomic indicators (such as consumption, investment, and employment stability), thereby providing micro-level evidence for macro policies.
Evaluation of the specific effectiveness and impact pathways of various digital intervention tools (such as behavioral nudges and robo-advisors) in enhancing the financial health of different demographic groups.
Continued specialized research targeting key populations, including new urban residents, rural seniors, Gig workers, and micro-enterprises.
Meanwhile, active participation in international dialogues is required. We should draw on frameworks such as those of the G20 to refine an indicator system and monitoring methodology that fits China's specific national context.
Second, facilitate the transformation of research outcomes to drive sustainable market practices. Deeper collaboration should be encouraged between academia, financial institutions, and tech companies to transform theoretical models and empirical findings into user-friendly digital tools, embedded services, or innovative products. Local governments should be supported in incorporating financial health as a core goal into strategic initiatives such as rural revitalization and common prosperity, while exploring integrated models that combine financial health with community governance, social security, and industrial development. Furthermore, a national or industry-level financial health database and dynamic monitoring platform should be established to integrate multi-source data resources, thereby providing robust support for the precise evaluation and dynamic optimization of policy effectiveness.
Finally, build a collaborative governance ecosystem and consolidate the joint efforts of the entire society. Advocating for a co-governance framework characterized by "government guidance, regulatory promotion, industry leadership, academic support, and public participation."
At the government level: Systematically integrate financial health knowledge into the national education system and public awareness campaigns.
At the regulatory level: Consider gradually incorporating financial health-related indicators into assessment systems for inclusive finance and consumer protection, guiding financial institutions to truly focus on clients' long-term value.
At the industry level: Encourage more institutions to adopt financial health as a core business logic, optimize their business models, and achieve unity of commercial success and social value.
At the academic level: The academic community must continue to serve as a think tank and source of innovation.
Through the joint efforts of all parties, an open, inclusive, and responsible financial health ecosystem can be developed, ensuring that the outcomes of financial development benefit all members of society.
