MasterCard Worldwide’s Financial Literacy Program Latin American and Caribbean region Fact Sheet
MasterCard Worldwide’s financial literacy program for the Latin America and Caribbean Region, Consumo Inteligente in Spanish, Consumidor Consciente in Portuguese and Smart Consumer in English, continues to expand its outreach to Latin American and Caribbean consumers with online and off-line tools and resources to help them improve their money management skills.
Overview and Program’s
Growth
Since 2000, the Internet usage in the Latin America and Caribbean region has grown over 866%, more than double the world’s growth rate, and it is expected to continue growing at this fast pace for some time (source: Internet World Stats). Reaching young and contemporary Internet users in Latin America is crucial in order to maintain relevance in today’s market. Additionally, MasterCard Worldwide is committed to educating consumers not only through online channels, but also one-on-one, by providing tools that will help them take control of their financial future. MasterCard’s financial literacy program has grown rapidly since its inception in 2007.
Monthly visitors continue to top 20,000. Website visits have been growing at 86% month over month. First launched in Mexico and Brazil, the program now reaches consumers in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. More recently, MasterCard has launched its regional web portal where consumers from all over the Latin America and Caribbean region can find a variety of tools and resources to become savvier at managing their money. Program content, resources and tools are available in Spanish, Portuguese, and now English.
New and Interactive Components In this latest round of developments, Smart Consumer’s websites incorporate the latest 2.0 technology to uniquely tailor content to the language and local interests of the visitor. The website also features new animated capsules, featuring the Smart Consumer family who present and resolve real financial family dilemmas/situations. Bloggers from various Latin American countries – the Smart Consumer Experts Panel – offer insight and tips, promote a two-way communication channel with consumers from across the region, and provide an interactive and highly relevant educational experience. Site visitors can easily navigate the website’s educational content to find financial information, tips and tools, as well as interactive educational modules on a wide variety of topics, from the use of credit and debit cards, to budgeting and saving, all to promote successful family financial management.
Social Networking Features Consumers in the region can follow the latest updates from the Smart Consumer program by using the latest social networking interfaces, incorporating Twitter, Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn, RSS
social networking
feeds, blogs, and podcasts to reach more and more users and boost accessibility and convenience.
Customer Outreach MasterCard in the Latin America and Caribbean region is committed to reaching consumers of all ages, socio-economic backgrounds and levels of financial awareness through the Smart Consumer program,
For More Information Visit www.consumointeligente.org, www.consumidorconscciente.org in Brazil and www.smartconsumer.ws for the English version.