King's College London

A team of King’s Business School students could be set to help financial services companies with the difficult challenge of encouraging young people to save.

The team, ‘The Saviours’, won the Investment and Savings Alliance (TISA) Savings Culture Competition, with their plan for a ‘BUILD’ app showing users how their future life will build around them, based on their savings habits. The judging panel of marketing experts from the financial savings industry felt that the proposal could ‘change the conversation around savings and bring fun and energy to the subject of saving for the future.’

Currently over half of 22-29 year olds in the UK have no savings at all, and the competition was designed by TISA, a financial services industry group, as a way to generate innovative approaches to change that.

The ‘Saviours’ team, consisting of Justus Klose, Matas Danilaitis, Sofia Rebelo, Harshita Lalwani, Kenil Shah and Trisha Banerjee, worked with an advisor from Aviva to develop their winning proposal after battling through to the finals following a mini-challenge in February.

As well as being offered work placements at their preferred company, the winning team will have the opportunity to co-write an article for TISA explaining their idea and to pitch it to the TISA member organisations’ marketing directors in person post-lockdown.

Two other teams from King’s Business School made it through to the competition finals. ‘The Rule Breakers’ proposed a viral social media savings challenge, while ‘Kings with Wings’ suggested the creation of a round-up app, where the funds go into an ISA featuring responsible investment choices.