Helping consumers navigate their financial lives

A day-to-day account is an account used for day-to-day payments and transactions.  For most people this is a current account.  For others, it can be a savings account (with a bank, building society or National Savings and Investments (NS&I) or a credit union savings account.

General insurance includes having one or more of the following general insurance policies in their own name or in joint names: motor insurance, motor breakdown cover, any home/ contents/ buildings insurance, multi-trip (annual) travel insurance, legal expenses/ protection insurance, single-trip travel insurance (held now or in the last 12 months), home emergency cover, pet insurance, mobile phone insurance, extended warranty, insurance for high value/ non-standard items not covered by another policy, gadget insurance, missed event/ ticket insurance, Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) insurance, credit card protection, ID theft insurance, wedding and party insurance. These products can help consumers manage the financial impact of unexpected events. The relevance of different products will vary depending on consumers’ circumstances.

Investible assets include the total value of money held in cash savings products (such as savings accounts and cash ISAs) as well as any money held in current accounts considered to be savings, plus the total current market value of any investment products held. Investment products do not include real investments (e.g. wine, art, jewellery, antiques, vintage car, collectibles), investment property, or DC pension assets.  Adults who held any savings or investments jointly were asked to only include the amount they considered to be theirs.

For the purposes of the Financial Lives survey, mainstream investments include shares in listed companies, stocks and shares ISAs, investment funds or endowments, insurance bonds, corporate bonds or gilt/government bonds, structured deposits/investments or lifetime ISAs that are invested. Please note that those holding mainstream investments may also hold high-risk investments alongside them.

Any savings accounts include savings accounts with a bank, building society or with National Savings and Investments (NS&I), premium bonds, National Savings and Investment (NS&I) bonds, Credit Union savings accounts, Cash ISAs, Help to Buy ISAs, Lifetime ISAs that are not invested or if don't know the type of ISA held.

We use metrics from our Financial Lives survey (FLS) – the UK’s largest tracking survey of UK adults’ financial behaviour, perceptions and experiences of the UK financial services industry. The survey is nationally representative.

We run the main FLS every 2 years, for example 2020, 2022, and 2024. We run recontact surveys in the years between the main waves, using a smaller set of questions for respondents who agree to follow-up. In 2025, just over 4,000 people took part in the recontact survey, with a good response rate of around a quarter of those invited. We compare results across the main and recontact surveys. 

We weight the data from both survey types in the same way to reflect the UK adult population. However, there are some methodological differences, which may affect some results. For example, the recontact survey focuses on financial product ownership, rather than asking all product ownership questions again. The recontact survey results represent people aged 19 and over, as participants are recontacted 12 months after taking part in the main survey of adults aged 18 and over.

We collect FLS and recontact survey data in and around May each year. We publish findings about a year later, after rigorous quality assurance and data processing. This time lag means we will report these consumer metrics at different times from other strategic outcomes. 

We want more consumers to access and use a wider range of products and services to support their financial wellbeing. So, our first metric measures the proportion of consumers holding products that help them meet current needs and prepare for the future, putting consumers in a stronger position to cope with financial change. These products include:

• day-to-day accounts, which support participation in the wider economic and access to financial services
• general insurance, such as home contents insurance, to support consumers when things go wrong
• savings accounts, to support planning and resilience for unexpected events
• pension savings, to prepare for later life and build financial resilience

For general insurance, the metric shows whether consumers hold at least one product from a defined set included in the Financial Lives survey. It is a broad indicator of engagement with insurance. The measure does not assess whether cover is sufficient, whether consumers need specific products, or whether they hold the most appropriate products for their individual circumstances.

This data does not show whether the products are actively used. However, holding these products indicates engagement with financial services, and supports financial resilience over time. Some consumers choose not to hold these products, so we recognise these figures will not reach 100%. 

Our second metric is the proportion of consumers with £10,000 or more in investible assets investing at least some of their money in mainstream investments. While there will always be a need for accessible cash, we want consumers to have the ability and confidence to invest larger sums in ways that make the most of their money over the longer term. As the economy grows, we want consumers to be able to see the benefits of this.

Our third metric covers consumer satisfaction with financial services providers. The average satisfaction score is a composite index showing consumers' overall satisfaction with their providers. It is a weighted average, which takes account of ownership levels of each product so that they contribute to the average in correct proportions.

No single set of measures can fully capture our 3 strategic outcomes. So, we also track a small number of additional consumer metrics to support planning and prioritisation. These include insights covering consumer credit, debt advice, mortgages and customer service complaints. This provides a more comprehensive and flexible assessment of performance as consumer conditions change, including cost of living pressures.

When we published our strategy in March 2025, we committed to developing a new metric on access to credit, including mortgages. To support this, we have added missed mortgage payments to our additional consumer metrics.