Description of the programme

This programme involved the use of web-based financial educational materials, which aimed to improve levels of financial knowledge, confidence and trust, as well as financial behaviour amongst American immigrants. The programme targeted immigrants, as evidence suggested that immigrants ‘lag behind in financial participation’. The materials comprised an easy-to-navigate website with information and quiz questions to help increase user retention of the information.

The University of California, the RAND Corporation and University of Singapore designed the programme.

The study

Those responsible for designing the programme also conducted an impact evaluation of it in 2011/12. This study involved a randomised control trial (RCT) with the use of a comparison group, which tested two versions of the educational website. It also involved pre- and two post-programme surveys, the first of which was undertaken directly after participants used the website, and the second around 6 months after that. The researchers conducted the pre-intervention survey with a nationally representative sample of adults using an online panel to form a baseline assessment.

Two versions of the website were developed and tested: Version A was based on general purpose financial information about banking, saving, investing and retirement, and Version B contained all the information in Version A plus content addressing immigrant-specific rules. The evaluation also included a third group, who received no information (the 'control' group).

Key findings

The evaluation found improved outcomes in relation to:

• There was no improvement in the behaviour measured with participants being no more likely to enrol in a retirement plan after participation in the programme.

• Directly after using the website, programme participants were more likely than the comparison group to correctly differentiate savings and investment products, correctly perform an interest rate calculation, and to be more familiar with the rules governing retirement accounts.

Overall, the results point to the effectiveness of this type of educational material in informing immigrants about important financial information that they are unfamiliar with, including information related to their immigrant status.

However, the results of the survey undertaken six months after the programme showed that most of the knowledge gains were short lived (one exception being Individual Retirement Account withdrawal rules). Immigration-related information was retained by immigrant participants who were shown it.

Points to consider

The short-lived nature of the results points to the need for repeated interventions to reinforce knowledge retention, as the effects of this one-time intervention on financial knowledge were temporary and not accompanied by changes in financial behaviour.