The National Strategy for Financial Capability

Pooling resources and expertise ensures we maximise collective impact and avoid duplication. We can collectively help New Zealanders make informed choices to reduce debt, save, invest, protect what’s important, and make key product decisions to create a better future.  

There's no mechanism like the National Strategy for Financial Capability that brings together such a breadth of organisations. Representatives from community organisations, government agencies, banks, fintechs and insurance companies join with financial advisers, financial mentors, debt solution providers and iwi to undertake practical initiatives within a common strategic framework to help New Zealanders to grow their money and build resilience.  

Supporting people to grow their money

Support workplaces to shift the dial for women, led by the Financial Services Council’s Empower Women

This initiative will look at pooling some of the fantastic resources available to help women maximise their earning and wealth-building potential by arming workplaces with the right information.

Develop money management tool and pilot usage, a partnership between Christians Against Poverty and Te Ara Ahunga Ora

Combining expertise, community connections and sponsorship to pilot the development of a new open banking app, to foster and grow positive financial behaviours such as active savings and spending restraint in a community financial wellbeing context.

Helping people to build resilience for the unexpected

Sorted Money Month focus on emergency savings

The theme for Sorted Money Month for August 2025 will be to encourage New Zealanders to set up an emergency savings fund. Working alongside community organisations, banks and other National Strategy partners, we aim to rally around a single focus to help build people’s financial resilience.

Launch financial inclusion research and work plan, led by the RBNZ and Commerce Commission

Research around financial inclusion will help shape the work plan to reduce barriers around accessing banking products and services some New Zealanders face. This will require cross-sector support and be a multi-year initiative.

Lifting financial capability through education and training

Agree on a consistent financial education core-competency framework for young people, led by Te Ara Ahunga Ora

To help drive greater coordination of financial education in schools, a new core competency framework will be developed to identify how key financial concepts are taught across the different age groups, who is already teaching what, and where there may be gaps.

Develop a financial mentors’ professional development framework, led by FinCap and the Ministry of Social Development

A framework is being developed to identify professional development programmes for financial mentors. In a rapidly evolving financial landscape, commitment to professional growth is essential, both for delivering high-quality services and for achieving career advancement.

Leveraging collective impact

Pilot the use of shared financial wellbeing outcome measures

We encourage those running financial capability programmes or initiatives to adopt the use of the shared measurement tool in your evaluations and let us know the results, so we can share lessons learned. We will be spotlighting success and communicating our findings through the shared resource hub, alongside newsletter updates and future events, like the National Strategy Conference in 2026 and the connection series.