The financial environment and the way money is embodied, encountered, exchanged and designed is increasingly diverse, with money increasingly becoming an intangible commodity, rather than tangible cash in our hands and wallets. We know that adults’ financial attitudes are established at a young age, but there is relatively little work exploring children’s perspectives on money.
The challenge faced by NWG, and the banking sector as a whole, is that we do not fully understand how children learn, experience and interact with an increasingly more digital form of money. Many children are now ‘digital natives’ and are more and more unlikely to have a tangible experience with money, often only encountering money in a digital form. There is scant academic research around this topic area and that which does exist tend to be based around the parents' perspectives.
As part of the NatWest group’s purpose to champion potential, helping people, families and businesses thrive, NatWest has committed over a 5-year period to invest £50 million to improve the financial wellbeing of 1 million young people and help them feel more confident about their future.
By conducting primary research to understand how children interact with and experience digital monies, it will help inform the development of NatWest groups’ youth proposition to ensure they meet they help young people thrive and improve their financial wellbeing.