Financial Literacy and its Relationship to the Indebtedness of a Bank’s Customers

Abstract

The success or failure of economic agents, especially families, depends on decision making, which in turn will depend on the capabilities, knowledge and skills acquired through financial education. In this sense, the lack of financial capabilities is considered one of the most pressing problems in today’s societies. In Peru, one of the main barriers to financial inclusion is the lack of financial education; these low levels of education affect the contracting of active and passive operations in the financial system. The objective of this research was to determine the relationship between financial literacy and the indebtedness of the clients of a banking agency. The methodology has a quantitative approach, correlational level, cross-sectional and non-experimental design. The population considered is finite, 1600 customers in the bank and the study sample was 310 customers. A survey was used as a technique and a 36-question Likert scale questionnaire was used as an instrument. The correlational results present a Spearman’s Rho =0.474; the research also finds that 73.23 % of the bank’s clients are interested in knowing the interest rate (TCEA) before contracting a loan on the active operations side and on the passive operations side 54. Regarding savings, 60% of the bank’s clients consider it important to save in the financial system, which is consistent with the fact that 65.49% tend to keep their savings in the banking system for a period of more than 12 months, demonstrating confidence in the Peruvian financial system. It is concluded that there is a relationship between financial literacy and the indebtedness of the clients of the Lima branch of a bank, obtaining a positive correlation.