Student competition guidelines for the 2025 Building Better Financial Futures Challenge
Bring your innovative solutions to improve financial outcomes for consumers.
The competition will be open for submissions on September 1, 2024.
The deadline to submit papers to the competition is April 30, 2025.
Inspired by FCAC’s National Financial Literacy Strategy ― Make Change that Counts, the Building Better Financial Futures Challenge is a competition offering a unique opportunity for post-secondary students to offer innovative solutions to improve financial outcomes for consumers. Finalists get the opportunity to connect with senior public servants and present their ideas to stakeholders and leaders in the field of financial well-being.
For more information about the competition or the submission process contact competition@fcac-acfc.gc.ca.
About the competition
About FCAC
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) was established in 2001 to protect the rights and interests of consumers of financial products and services.
Our mandate
FCAC’s mandate is to supervise federally regulated financial entities and strengthen the financial literacy of Canadians.
The National Financial Literacy Strategy
In 2021, FCAC renewed the National Financial Literacy Strategy ― Make Change that Counts with the objective of helping Canadians build financial resilience in an increasingly digital world.
The National Strategy is a 5-year plan to create a more accessible, inclusive, and effective financial ecosystem that supports diverse Canadians in meaningful ways by providing guidance on how financial literacy stakeholders can reduce barriers, catalyze actions, and work together to help Canadians build financial resilience.
Text version: ecosystem changes
Ecosystem Changes
Reduce barriers
- Communicate in ways people understand
- Build and provide for diverse needs
- Support increased digital access and digital literacy
Catalyze actions
- Enhance access to trustworthy and affordable financial help
- Use behavioural design to simplify financial decisions
- Strengthen consumer protection measures
Enable consumers to achieve financial resilience
- Skills: Navigate the financial marketplace
- Capacity: Build just-in-time financial knowledge and confidence
- Behaviours: Manage expenses, debt, and savings
Changes to the financial literacy ecosystem are supported by evidence-based research and collaboration.
The challenge
This year’s student competition theme centers on the National Financial Literacy Strategy’s "Consumer Building Blocks". These Consumer Building Blocks have been proven to help consumers develop the skills, capacity, and behaviours that lead to financial resilience, and are relevant for everyone in society, regardless of income, personal context, or circumstances. They are:
- Navigating the Financial Marketplace
- Building Just-In-Time Financial Knowledge and Confidence
- Managing Expenses
- Managing Debt
- Managing Savings
Participants are asked to develop a proposed solution to improve financial outcomes for consumers. Each proposal should focus on facilitating 1 of the 5 key consumer building blocks.
Each submission should also include a description of how the proposed solution could be empirically tested, whether through an experimental design, a pilot intervention, or other validated research methods.
*Note: If an existing solution from another country, or an existing smaller-scale solution from somewhere in Canada is identified, students can propose how to adapt it and/or scale it up for broader use by Canadians.
Students enrolled in college, CEGEP, or university programs are invited to enter this competition. A top and a runner-up paper will be selected from the competition’s two judging categories: undergraduate and graduate.
Benefits of participation
Authors of selected and runner-up papers will:
- Have their papers published by FCAC on Canada.ca
- Have their ideas presented to government representatives and stakeholders
- Gain a valuable accolade for their CVs and resumes
- Have the potential to inspire meaningful change in Canadian policy and practice
Successful participants from each category (undergraduate & graduate) will have their work published on Canada.ca, and will be given the opportunity to meet with FCAC staff to learn about the governmental publication process. They will also be given the opportunity to serve as guest speakers to present their work to members of the financial literacy community, and network with governmental officials and other financial literacy stakeholders, as appropriate.
Honourable mention will be noted in each category. Runners-up who are given the distinction of honourable mention may also be given the opportunity to have their reports published on Canada.ca.
Further information: Ideas for proposed solutions
You may consider various approaches to address your chosen Consumer Building Block, such as developing an advertising campaign, crafting a focused brochure, implementing an educational program, creating a financial application, introducing a new financial service, adjusting an existing financial product, or enhancing current consumer protection measures in Canada. For examples of different ways to address the 5 Consumer Building Blocks, see Table 1 below.
Table 1. The ecosystem priorities under the theme “Consumer Building Blocks” (5 key consumer building blocks) and potential ways to address these building blocks:
Consumer Building Block 1: Skills to Navigate the Financial Marketplace
The aim of this building block is to enable more Canadians to be aware of, know how to learn about, and have access to financial products and services that will help them achieve their goals.
Ways to Address this Consumer Building Block:
- Direct consumers to sources of trustworthy information that can help them compare the costs, risks, benefits, and limitations of the products, service, or financial service provider they are considering.
- Ensure consumers know their rights and responsibilities when purchasing a financial product or service, including how to resolve a complaint.
- Help consumers recognize and take steps to protect themselves against fraud, financial abuse, cybercrime, and costly and inappropriate products and services.
- Provide assistance to people with financial vulnerabilities, low levels of digital access or literacy to use financial services effectively.
Consumer Building Block 2: Build Just-In-Time Financial Knowledge and Confidence
The aim of this building block is to enable more Canadians to have the information they need at the right time, along with the understanding, skills, and confidence to use that information to achieve their financial goals.
Ways to Address this Consumer Building Block:
- Before they commit to a financial product or service, help consumers understand the key facts about it, including its costs, risks, benefits, and limitations.
- Provide and direct consumers to trustworthy and unbiased financial advice and resources, for example, certified financial advisor, government web resources.
- Encourage consumers to be realistic about their future income and expenses when making important financial decisions, and to seek qualified, trustworthy advice when making a financial plan.
Consumer Building Block 3: Manage Expenses
The aim of this building block is to enable more Canadians to keep up with their bills and credit commitments.
Ways to Address this Consumer Building Block:
- Make it easy for consumers to receive reminders, automate bill payments and/or align payment dates with their pay schedule. For example, to avoid forgetting and incurring late fees and interest, consumers could select the best payment date.
- Help consumers develop a budget or spending plan to feel confident about where their money goes. Nudge consumers to regularly review their spending to monitor their progress in following their spending plan (see FCAC Budget Planner).
- Engage with academics, researchers, and stakeholders to test new interventions to help people manage day-to-day expenses.
Consumer Building Block 4: Manage Debt
The aim of this building block is to enable more Canadians to feel in control of their overall debt situation.
Ways to Address this Consumer Building Block:
- Pilot and test experimental interventions to help consumers pay down their debts and avoid incurring additional debt-related costs. These experiments could evaluate the impacts of interventions such as:
- increasing the amount and/or frequency of minimum payments
- increasing payment amounts in alignment with salary increases or bonuses
- paying off high-interest debt first and exploring opportunities to reduce interest payments on existing debts through refinancing
- consolidating debts so consumers can focus on fewer repayment plans
- Provide consumers with trustworthy and unbiased financial information and advice to help them make informed borrowing choices using affordable credit options and lower-risk debt.
- Engage with academics, researchers, and stakeholders to test new interventions to help people manage debt wisely.
Consumer Building Block 5: Manage Savings
The aim of this building block is to enable more Canadians to engage in savings practices that will help them weather financial shocks and unexpected expenses, as well as achieve their financial goals.
Ways to Address this Consumer Building Block:
- Make it easy for consumers to put saving routines or systems in place, such as automated savings on paydays, or roundup savings linked to all debit and credit card purchases, to regularly and proactively set aside money for emergency savings.
- Nudge consumers to regularly review their savings to monitor their progress in achieving their savings goals.
- Test behavioural interventions and educate consumers about these strategies. For instance, consumers might be more motivated to save if they can name their savings accounts after specific goals, for example, the 'car repair/replacement pot' or the 'kids' camp/holiday pot'.
- Engage with academics, researchers, and stakeholders to test new interventions to help people manage savings.
When choosing a topic for your research paper, focus on one consumer building block and delve deeply into it. Avoid suggesting broad and vague solutions; instead, aim to develop a specific idea more thoroughly.
For instance, suggesting to "encourage Canadians with financial difficulties to use affordable financial products and services" is too general a recommendation. Instead, propose a concrete, detailed solution.
While it is not obligatory, many authors choose to focus on supporting groups experiencing vulnerabilities with their proposed solutions. These groups may include individuals with low incomes, Indigenous Peoples, racialized Canadians, women, older Canadians, newcomers to Canada, linguistic minorities, people with disabilities or cognitive challenges, or those with limited digital literacy skills (see Priority 2 of the National Financial Literacy Strategy: Build and Provide for Diverse Needs).
For additional inspiration, please explore the top and runner-up papers from FCAC's National Student Paper Competitions in 2021 and 2023.
For all submissions, secondary research (e.g., library or online research, reading academic articles from journals, newspapers) is required.
- primary research (e.g., interviews with target group members, short surveys, data analysis) is recommended if feasible, but not required
Students are welcome to use FCAC datasets as primary research in their paper. The anonymized data from the Monthly Financial Well-Being Monitor, as well as FCAC’s 2019 Canadian Financial Capability Survey, and the 2018 Financial Well-being Survey are available. While not mandatory for the competition, utilizing these datasets can serve to enrich student submissions.
To submit a request to access these data, please complete the data request form.
Students are also encouraged to consult other FCAC reports and studies, as well as data and/or examples from the international community to gain a fuller understanding of the measures and issues related to financial literacy and financial well-being.
Application process
Are you a post-secondary student looking for an opportunity to apply your knowledge to make a difference?
Are you interested in meeting and exchanging ideas with thought leaders at the national level?
Do you have innovative ideas that can improve financial outcomes for consumers?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, consider applying.
Timeframe
The deadline to submit papers is April 30, 2025.
Eligibility
1) Applicants must:
- Be registered in a Canadian college, CEGEP, or university program at the time of their submission
- Submit an 8-10 page research paper, in English or French, as described in detail in the competition guidelines
- Submit their own work which has not been published elsewhere
2) A student may participate in this competition as an individual or as part of a two-person (maximum) team. However:
Each individual may only submit one entry in the competition. For instance, if a participant chooses to enter individually, then the participant cannot also enter as part of a team. Likewise, a participant cannot be on multiple teams.
In the case of team entries, the presence of one graduate student in the team will mean that the submission will be considered in the graduate category.
Category definitions are based on the participant’s student status in the 2024-2025 academic year. For example, if a participant is an undergraduate student from fall 2024 until spring 2025, the participant qualifies in the undergraduate category.
3) Conformity to ethical standards: Academic institution and the Government of Canada
All papers must satisfy the ethical standards of the submitting author(s)' academic institution. It is incumbent upon the author(s) to ensure that they have met these requirements, particularly if any human research has been conducted. Human research typically includes any data collected directly from people, including, for instance, data collected via surveys or interviews.
The submitted papers must conform to Government of Canada publishing requirements.
Format
Research paper: Cover page plus 8-10 typed, double spaced pages, 11-pt font (Times New Roman), with 1-inch margins. You may include up to an additional 3 pages of exhibits and appendices. A References page should be located at the end of the research paper but before the additional exhibits and appendices. The Cover page and References page do not count towards the word limit.
Cover page must contain: Name(s) of individual or team members, respective post-secondary institutions, departments/focus of study, title of research paper, and copyright statement.
The research paper must include the following in this order:
- An introduction that examines and synthesizes existing research related to the selected building block and proposed solution.
- A description of an actionable solution to help consumers, targeting 1 of the 5 consumer building blocks listed above.
- A description of how the proposed solution could be empirically tested using an experimental design, a pilot intervention, or other validated research methods. This section serves to focus attention on building evidence-based support for the proposed solution. Please be specific about how you would test the proposed solution (i.e., by describing the study’s design and what outcome variables you would measure).
Contact us
For more information, please contact FCAC:
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada / Government of Canada
427 Laurier Avenue West, 5th Floor
Ottawa, ON K1R 1B9
Email: competition@fcac-acfc.gc.ca
Evaluation process
Evaluation
The competition has two judging categories: undergraduate and graduate.
- The undergraduate category includes papers submitted by students enrolled in entry-level college, CEGEP, or university programs that require prior secondary school experience only (e.g., certificate, diploma, or bachelor's degree programs)
- The graduate category includes papers submitted by students enrolled in advanced programs that require prior post-secondary school experience (e.g., Master's, PhD, professional degree and graduate certificate programs)
Judging will be conducted by a panel of referees drawn from FCAC staff as well as members of its Research Committee, and points will be allocated in the following manner (see attached grading rubric):
Background research (30%)
Your paper should begin with an introductory literature review. This section should introduce your chosen consumer building block. It should also provide coverage of relevant background information to support both the consumer building block and your proposed solution.
Proposed Solution (30%)
Provide a detailed description of a proposed solution that flows from the research findings described in your introduction.
This portion of the paper should include a description of how the solution is actionable and practical, how it relates to the selected consumer building block, and how it will achieve one or more desirable outcomes.
Proposed method to test solution (30%)
Provide a description of how the proposed solution could be empirically tested using an experimental design, a pilot intervention, or other validated research methods.
This section serves to focus attention on building evidence-based support for the proposed solution.
Please be specific about how you would test the proposed solution (i.e., by describing the study’s design and what outcome variables you would measure).
Additional Factors (10%)
- Originality
- Primary research (i.e., research or analyses conducted by the student(s)) such as an experimental study or original analyses on an archival data set
- Practical significance and impact
- Expected contribution to knowledge
Finalists
See past finalist submissions and be inspired to submit your own.
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