Drawing on a large and wide-ranging literature on consumer behaviour, this report argues that psychological rather than informational differences may explain much of the variation in financial capability reported in the FSA's financial capability survey, and that people's financial behaviour may primarily depend on their intrinsic psychological attributes rather than information or skills or how they choose to deploy them. In this context, the authors conclude that financial capability initiatives which are designed to inform and educate should be expected to have a positive but modest impact. The FSA recognises that achieving widespread behavioural change.
