OREANDA-NEWS. Managing personal finances has always been tough. Emotions that people have, and the social situations that they’re in, often hinder smart financial decisions. Gaining a better understanding of how people make financial decisions is very important to make choices that help them to better shape their future.

ING today announces the launch of the Think Forward Initiative, started together with partners Microsoft, EMC and the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

The first step of this programme is to bring together research and experts to gain a deeper understanding of the behavioural biases behind financial decision-making. Next, to harness those insights and new technologies to help people make financial decisions that are better for them.

Studies show that consumers’ decision-making is driven by many factors other than sense and logic. That’s vital to address, because big financial decisions can have a large and lasting impact on our lives. At the same time, technology is developing rapidly and offers more possibilities every day to helps us make the right decisions and make life easier.

The programme will be started together with European and national policy-makers, consumer-organisation representatives, academics, and leaders from the financial and technology sectors.

A summit in Brussels on 25 February 2016 will be the kick-off event of this initiative. Pre-conference sessions with a select group of Summit participants will take place in Brussels, Frankfurt and Amsterdam in the second half of November to discuss the topics for the official gathering in February.