Citi Fin-Q survey now online

Citibank Philippines is making it easier for Filipinos — customers and non-customers alike — to find out their financial health in less than five minutes.

Its landmark Citi Fin-Q Survey is now available online at www.citibank.com.ph, and after answering 11 questions, you can find out where you stand financially.

In October last year, the world’s leading financial services company undertook a pan-regional survey to establish baseline data on the Financial Quotient or financial intelligence of consumers.

Conducted by Australia-based CxC Consulting, the survey was held in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand with the same sample size of 400 respondents in each country. Respondents were between 18 to 40 years old, and owned either a bank account or a credit card. The survey was administered online.

The Citi Fin-Q survey scored respondents on 11 different questions closely related to financial well being with a maximum possible score of 100. Questions ranged from their optimism about their financial future to approaches to budgeting and saving to whether they have a formal financial plan and an up-to-date will.

The same set of questions are now available online, and after taking the survey, you can also see how you fare versus the first 400 respondents from the Philippines who took it, across age, gender and income segment.

Country results showed an average Fin-Q score of 47.8 points for Filipinos, with 62 percent of the respondents having a score of less than 50. Other facts revealed by the survey:

Less than four out of 10 Filipinos have a monthly budget and stick to it. Around the same number set aside or save money every time they receive their salary or realize an income.

Three out of 10 Filipinos have no insurance — life or other types — leaving them vulnerable to financial crises.

Only one of out 10 Filipinos is consciously saving up for retirement. The rest have some savings but don’t know if it will be enough, others have no idea at all on how much they need or have not started planning.

About five out of 10 surveyed suggest that they will need assistance from their adult children when they reach retirement age.

On average, Filipinos say their current savings would last nine weeks if they were to lose their job today, but still had to pay all of their regular day-today-expense.

According to Country business manager Mark Jones, the survey showed the urgent need for financial education in the country, and declared that Citibank is committed to do its share to develop financial literacy programs and reach out to publics that are not necessarily its clients.

For many years now, Citibank has piloted a number of financial education campaigns including the bi-lingual Use Credit Wisely website (www.usecreditwisely.citibank.com.ph) that offers a comprehensive round-the-clock reference guide on financial management, publications such as Make More Money, Pagpaparami sa Pera Mo and Use Credit Wisely aimed at targeted audiences, personal finance resources published in newspapers, aired on television and radio, as well as posted on the Internet with leading media organizations as partners, and so many more.

Jones said they are using the Citi Fin-Q survey to better understand the evolving financial needs of consumers, “and the results will help us develop financial education programs and materials to help the general public make better informed financial decisions.”

Log on to www.citibank.com.ph to know your financial health in less than five minutes.