Claudia Tobar, co-founder of Kamina and with fourteen years of experience as a professor at the University of San Francisco in innovation, is part of a new financial education project that proposes, through a technological platform and artificial intelligence, to accompany citizens in creating financial well-being. He warns that traditional financial education does not produce results and that people continue to repeat bad habits that lead them into a “debt spiral”. Citizens have problems accessing loans due to restrictions associated with fraudster syndrome. He says that financial stress is one of the causes of suicides.

What is Kamina and what are you looking for from financial education?

The fireplace is a fintech An Ecuadorian trying to solve the problem of access to transparent financial education. It can also provide access to credit, with the right advice. We set ourselves the goal of understanding how the dynamics of money work, since it is a tool for social development that few of us know how to play the game.

How can citizens benefit from your program? Are there any costs?

We want to democratize financial education. We have a B2B action plan where we start from companies. We offer you this platform for free and we want your employees to improve their financial well-being, which has positive consequences for productivity: it reduces absenteeism and reduces sick days. In another moment we will come to models B to C, so directly to the citizens. We don’t monetize people but partner with financial institutions to provide transparent education but breaking the traditional schemes.

Do you already cooperate with a financial institution?

We are in the phase of building the model, we do not have a partner. Now with this disruption we want to reach the banks and challenge the existing model. What we see is that there is an interest of the banks in attracting savings and lending, they try to attract their customers at the beginning and sometimes they don’t see them again until they are on the delinquency list. So, we want to be a strategic partner, but creating new metrics. Our model is triple A: access, support and advice. This was accompanied by the recognition that formal financial education was worthless. What we learned about finances was on the street, and we even repeat bad patterns, which eventually lead us into a spiral of debt, which is the beginning of the end for increasing financial stress.

What are the findings of your financial stress report?

We approach the user to understand reality. Part of the data we have is that 70% of people have access to informal credit: money lent to them by their mother, father and chulco. And the reasons for not going to the bank are in many cases psychological and emotional limitations. Especially for women. There is fear and many have impostor syndrome, who do not feel worthy of this credit. That’s why we think that before we give them the theory of money, we have to attack emotionality. Let it be understood that it is possible to get out of the circle of poverty, that women have other paths to independence. These limitations come from a very Latin American idiosyncrasy, which is what sociologist Jaime Costales calls “learned hopelessness.” People think they shouldn’t take out loans, they’ve heard their parents tell them not to take out loans, because banks are the devil and they think that if they do, they’re going against their values.

And specifically about financial stress and suicide?

The pandemic has visualized the importance of mental health. Financial stress is an aggravating factor. We discovered the subjective and objective component of financial stress. The goal refers to income and expenses. The perception of the lack of control I have is subjective. It has been said that people with financial stress are twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts. Suicide is one of the most important causes of death in the world. We have the responsibility of prevention. In Ecuador, on November 20, public and private entities came together to sign a national agreement on financial education. As fintech We want to be in that commission to contribute, to be part of the solution.

What would that contribution be from fintech?

Financial education efforts so far have been based on seminars, workshops, communication and city visits. But these programs are limited because the investments are high and there is no monitoring of results. However fintech With the influence they have in technology, they can have exponential power to reach the population. Connectivity in the country has improved impressively, and we can use artificial intelligence as an ally in this matter.

When someone is listening fintech, You may think of a company that makes electronic payment buttons. But you focus on education.

We are one fintech because we solve the financial problem with technology. What we want to say to users is: ‘there are rules of the game and you have to learn to play them’. Not all users need a loan, but they need a culture of savings, they must prepare for a juice urgency.

We made an agreement with the Filipino-Canadian laboratory The decision lab, which has researchers in behavioral science, behavioral psychology and behavioral economics. This lab conducts applied research to understand the motivators and blockers of behavior. This agreement allows us to understand behavior based on personality archetypes. The application we use is a kind of traffic navigator that tells us how to get there, where there is traffic, what time you arrive. A financial navigation platform can do the same. A portion of our sales will go towards creating a financial literacy program.