A Filene Research Institute program designed to help consumers develop healthy financial habits has won a $300,000 grant from the Center For Financial Services Innovation.

Filene's Lift program beat out 246 competing programs from 44 states to win the award.

The research organization that specializes in credit union issues described the program as “a loan feature that provides incentives for healthy financial habits,” adding, “[a]s users make timely payments on their loan, they are rewarded with a lower interest rate. This pioneering concept allows users to pay off their loans faster and reduce the amount of interest paid. It also helps them establish healthy financial behaviors and earn the opportunity to bring down their interest rate.”

Jennifer Tescher, CEO of CFSI, called Lift one of the “cutting-edge solutions designed to create behavior changes in addition to knowledge gains.”

“We are honored to receive this substantial and intensely competitive grant award,” says Mark Meyer, CEO of the Filene Research Institute. “Winning an award from the Financial Capability Innovation Fund was no easy task, and we're humbled to have been chosen from among so many other innovative and worthy projects.”