A new report, Shaping Young People’s Financial Futures Together, from the Compassion in Financial Services Hub at the University of Edinburgh’s Futures Institute, in collaboration with Young Scot, is calling on banks, policymakers and financial providers to overhaul how they design products, services and education for young people.
Based on the lived experiences of over 350 young people across Scotland, the research highlights rapid shifts towards digital money, growing financial pressures, and a widening gap between traditional financial services and the realities of young people’s lives.
The project, stemming from a year-long partnership between the University and Young Scot, worked with young people as active partners. Evidence was gathered through an online survey of 300 young people aged 11–24, four co-design workshops in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and interviews with 14 professionals across the financial sector.
The workshops were supported financially by the Royal Bank of Scotland and the ‘Thinking the Future of Money in the Humanities’ project, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, with participation from Lloyds Banking Group and Tesco Bank, amongst others.
The report identified five major trends reshaping young people’s financial lives:
Age: Children and teenagers are managing money digitally earlier than ever
Gaming: they encounter spending, saving and financial risk first through gaming environments, which are lightly regulated
Advice: parents remain the main source of financial guidance for younger children, but older teens are increasingly turning to online sources and social media, even though they often do not trust what they find, creating an ‘information–trust gap’
Banks: Traditional banks feel distant and irrelevant, yet many young people are comfortable using banking apps, suggesting potential for well-designed digital support
Education: school-based financial education feels patchy and often impractical
Young people said they wanted services aligned with real milestones such as first jobs, student loans and rent; financial products that recognise inequality and uncertainty; plainer language, and strong protections against scams and overspending.
To achieve this, young people consistently expressed a desire not just to be listened to, but to be actively involved in shaping the decisions that affect their financial futures. This means regulators and industry committing to ongoing, meaningful co-design with children and young people when developing financial products, experiences and policies.
The report sets out practical recommendations for policymakers and educators, as well as financial services professionals.
For example, policy makers could rethink age thresholds so that products reflect the age at which young people already use digital money; support real-world money skills beyond the classroom, including tools for parents and guardians, and improve safety and guidance around money in gaming and online platforms.
The financial services sector could develop financial pathways that grow with young people and are relevant to the real economic pressures they face; combine high-quality digital access with meaningful human support, and strengthen fraud, scam and data protections while supporting financial autonomy and maintaining ease of use.
Douglas Graham, Director of Innovation Clusters at Edinburgh Innovations, the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service, said:
“This is a fantastic example of collaboration between academia, industry and the third sector, led academically by Professor Tina Harrison of the Business School and Dr Chris Elsden of the Institute for Design Informatics at Edinburgh College of Art, with strong sector engagement.
By working together in this way, including actively involving young people, we can design products, services and policy that are really fit for purpose and, in this case, improve financial health and wellbeing.”
John Loughton, CEO of Young Scot, said:
“This research is a clear call to action. Young people are navigating an increasingly complex financial world, yet too often the systems and support around them haven’t kept pace with how they live, learn and manage money today. By working directly with young people, we’ve been able to highlight not only the challenges they face, but the practical changes needed to better support them.
Financial services have a huge opportunity here to become more inclusive, more transparent and more relevant to young people’s real lives and experiences. Let’s all collectively strive to meet the challenge of this generation’s financial hopes and expectations.”
Sandi Royden, Head of Retail Banking Customer Propositions at Royal Bank of Scotland, said:
“One of the most important things we can do as a bank, when designing for our younger customers, is to listen to their views and understand their context and needs. Recognising the things we do well for these customers today whilst understanding how we can continue to grow and adapt our offering to reflect the groups’ evolving needs is vital.
This research forms an important input to our continued development of our propositions for young people in Scotland, helping them build their financial skills, self-belief and confidence.”
Young Scot volunteer Emmanuella Shodunke, who contributed to the report, said:
“Money is already a big part of our lives, but a lot of the support out there doesn’t feel made for us. We’re learning through apps, games and online, but it can be confusing and sometimes hard to know what to trust. It would make a huge difference to have clearer advice and tools that actually match the stages we’re going through, like starting work or managing rent for the first time.”
The Compassion in Financial Services Hub is supported philanthropically by UK wealth manager Evelyn Partners.
