In Toronto and Vancouver, the two biggest big cities of Canada there is a large section of the population who have precarious income, living paycheck to paycheck. They usually have poor credit scores and when they suddenly need a loan, usually to cover basic expenses, they have to resort to high-interest payday lending, as banks do not extend loans to them. The payday loans have an inflexible repayment structure that forces the borrower to take another payday loan, eventually pushing many into a negative spiral.
This MRP focuses on understanding the needs of these urban-working-poor borrowers and seek design solutions - to reduce uptake of payday loans and find viable alternatives to payday loans. I have applied the tools of design thinking and behavioral economics to find solutions.
The criteria of success are whether the proposed design strategy solutions decrease the incident and frequency of the uptake of these high-interest payday loans by the urban working poor.