The Customer Empowerment Working Group advances practical, measurable, and system-relevant approaches to strengthening customer empowerment in financial inclusion. The group operates at the intersection of standards-setting, measurement innovation, and field-based action research.
Our Objectives
- Strengthen the Universal Standards for Social and Environmental Performance Management (SEPM) by developing guidance and potentially additional practices related to customer empowerment.
- Develop measurement tools with indicators that are credible, operationally useful, and grounded in customer experience.
- Conduct action research to understand what improves empowerment in real-world contexts, particularly with vulnerable and financially distressed customers.
- Collect feedback so customers directly shape the working group’s priorities, outputs, and approaches.
The Working Group bridges theory and practice — bringing together practitioners, researchers, networks,
and regulators to move beyond financial access toward meaningful agency.
We define empowerment through four dimensions:
Across global and sectoral work on customer empowerment, empowerment is understood not merely as knowledge acquisition, but as the ability to:
- Choice — making informed financial decisions
- Voice — expressing needs and concerns safely and effectively
- Respect — being treated fairly and with dignity
- Control — having greater influence over financial decisions and outcomes
The Working Group has made this framework operational through an Empowered Customer Grid that breaks each dimension into what customers know, feel, and do — knowledge and skills, attitudes and confidence, and behaviours and experience. One framework, adapted to two very different contexts: proactive empowerment of entrepreneurs entering the financial marketplace (Philippines), and empowerment of households already in debt stress (Cambodia). Both versions of the grid appear in the pilot spotlights below.
For more information:
For more information, contact: Nitin Madan at info@sptfnetwork.org with the subject line “Customer Empowerment”
Action research in practice
Two field action researches have tested what customer empowerment means in practice, at opposite ends of the customer journey.
The Ratanakiri Customer Empowerment Pilot (Cambodia, 2025)
The Ratanakiri pilot (Jan–Nov 2025) tested a customer empowerment model in a context of widespread debt
stress. Rather than focusing on “financial literacy” as information transfer, the pilot emphasized whether
households could:
- Explore and compare realistic repayment options
- Communicate their financial situation clearly
- Be treated respectfully by providers
- Negotiate workable debt terms
- Understand how past borrowing decisions shaped their current situation
The action research used a structured Empowerment Outcomes Grid across four dimensions — Choice, Respect, Voice,
and Control — at three levels: knowledge and skills, attitudes and confidence, and behaviours and
experience.
The CE Grid for debt stress:
The pilot reached 331 participants across five villages, working through locally recruited Village Debt Counselors, peer exchange, and coached support at “teachable moments” — the points where credit-officer visits, arrears, or refinancing pressure make decisions urgent. At endline, the overall Customer Empowerment Index averaged 64.4 out of 100. Voice was strongest (75.2 — the only dimension in the High band), while Choice (59.8), Control (63.8), and Respect (58.2) remained emerging. Completing more modules was associated with higher empowerment on every dimension except Respect — reinforcing a central lesson: respectful treatment is largely in the hands of providers, not something education alone can deliver. Underneath the averages sits a know/feel/do gap: knowledge and confidence rose to around 70/100 while action lagged at 55/100, pointing to a “last mile” problem where customer readiness meets lender process.
From Vulnerability to Voice (April 2026). Lessons from Ratanakiri’s debt stress frontier on pressure, protection, and the reforms needed for customer empowerment. The endline evaluation of the pilot: what shifted across Choice, Voice, Respect and Control, why exposure and post-module support matter, and what providers and regulators must do at the last mile.
Debt, Dignity, and the Path Between (August 2026). Lessons from Ratanakiri’s Indigenous communities on debt and financial well-being. A qualitative study of 38 respondents from 25 households — most of them debt-stressed Tampuen and Kreung families — examining financial well-being through the same four dimensions. Its central finding: the problem is not the absence of policy but the absence of accountability and monitoring to enforce existing client protection commitments. The study closes with ten priority recommendations for regulators, providers, and investors.
Four short financial education videos, developed post the pilot, walk through how customers in debt stress can deal with hardship — from understanding their situation to approaching their lender.
• Videos coming soon
Aral Plus: Sector-Level Customer Empowerment in the Philippines
The Aral Plus project represents a complementary model of proactive customer empowerment. Aral Plus — a customer empowerment-focused financial education module — was developed by the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI) and SPTF to supplement traditional financial education by embedding a customer empowerment framework directly into learning design.
The “Plus” refers to two innovations:
- Integration of empowerment principles (Choice, critical comparison, responsible borrowing, rights and responsibilities).
- Delivery at the moment when customers are preparing to engage with financial service providers (FSPs).
The Empowered Customer Grid:
- Implemented in partnership with the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through Negosyo Centers.
- Targeted micro and small entrepreneurs seeking capital or financial advice.
- Delivered in structured sessions combining: financial goal setting; financial product comparison; use of a Financial Product Matrix (FPM); meet-and-greet sessions with FSPs; and reflection and follow-up action.
The FPM was a central analytical tool, enabling participants to compare product attributes such as interest rates, fees, repayment schedules, requirements, and service quality.
Two pilots were conducted: Tanay (rural customers) and Mandaluyong (urban customers). Key findings included:
- Improved self-rated empowerment levels across sessions.
- Increased confidence in comparing products and asking questions.
- Strong appreciation for structured comparison tools and direct engagement with providers.
- High agreement with empowerment statements related to knowing options, comparing products, and confidence in choosing.
Notably, during follow-up reflection, a substantial share of participants chose not to take loans after the program — recognizing repayment risk due to unstable income, choosing to finish existing loans first, deciding to save rather than borrow, or questioning unreasonable provider requirements. This outcome reframed empowerment: success was not defined by loan uptake, but by better decision-making. Saying “no” when a product is unsuitable was treated as a positive empowerment outcome.
Aral Plus also demonstrated the value of neutral, sector-level delivery (through government-linked Negosyo Centers); the importance of balanced messaging across savings, insurance, and credit; and the role of coaching and follow-up in converting knowledge into action.
- Aral Plus Pilot Test Report (PDF) — [file to add]
- Aral Plus Concept Note (PDF, December 2021)
- Aral Plus Choice Module, Sessions 1–5 (PDF, November 2021)