Numerous surveys from around the world on financial knowledge and behavior have revealed a patchy, yet overwhelmingly consistent story: individuals in both developed and developing countries lack adequate knowledge to make informed decisions in the face of a growing array of complex financial products. A lot of emphasis, both in the United States and in developing countries, has been put on providing financial literacy trainings to young and adults in order to improve their ability to make sound and conscious financial choices. Despite suggestive evidence however, when it comes to proving impact of financial education, the evidence is both thin and mixed.

This study aims to test how the use of information and communication techniques, namely video clips and a radio program, can improve a standard financial education program for microfinance clients in Peru's Cuzco region. Arariwa, IPA's partner microfinance organization is convinced that video and radio are considered to be valuable complements to the traditional credit with education modules as they can guarantee the diffusion of visual and standardized as well as, in the case of radio, the opportunity to reach a wider group of individuals.

IPA and Arariwa will randomly assign half of 400 communal banks in the Cuzco area to receive a financial education course complemented by video materials and a weekly radio program. The existence of the radio program will be advertized only to the treatment group and a set of incentives will be put in place for individuals to listen to the radio programs.