12-October-2016:  OECD/INFE International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy Competencies This report contains the results of an international data collection survey that measured the financial literacy and financial inclusion of adults. A total of 51,650 adults aged 18 to 79 from 30 countries and economies participated in the survey.   OECD financial literacy study... [more...]

The CFPB issued this report to raise visibility about the financial education challenges that many immigrants face and to highlight promising approaches to help immigrants improve their financial well-being. [more...]

Inclusion Plus is an Innovation Competition sponsored by Met-Life Foundation. Competitors are invited to submit a product, service, programme or innovation to improve financial health and well-being for people in Ireland and across Europe. The proposal should demonstrate that it will improve people’s access, adoption and usage of financial products and services. 15... [more...]

The April 2016 publication provides an overview of the recent trends and developments in financial education policies and programmes in Europe. It describes the status of national strategies for financial education and various financial education programmes targeting a variety of audiences and through a variety of delivery channels. Based on the analysis of these... [more...]

iff Director of economics, Prof Doris Neuberger, has published a paper on financial inclusion in Germany. It should serve to give other countries examples of better practice, alternative policies and lessons for regulation of financial services. Below are the findings and reccomendations from the paper: Germany’s bank-based financial system provides a high level of... [more...]

As games have increasingly been sponsored by the financial industry as a method of teaching young people various important lessons about financial affairs, while consumer engagement and confidence in the subject may be enhanced, there are still many drawbacks from these educational/entertainment methods as outlined in this article.   Read Prof Lauren Willis’ blog entry... [more...]

England’s Department for Education has included financial education in the draft National Curriculum for England in both mathematics and in citizenship education for the first time. This was the fruit of a concerted campaign led in Parliament by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Financial Education for Young People, with the support of pfeg (Personal Finance... [more...]

The School of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham welcomes applications for a funded PhD scholarship on the topic of ... Personal finance education: What is it for?  And how best to do it? Context During the 1980s and 1990s, the financial landscape in the UK, as in many Western states, became increasingly complex with the growth of the credit industry, the... [more...]

Below are the links to the OECD online public consultations: Deadline for comment: 5 September 2011 Draft Guidelines on Financial Education at School and Guidance on Learning Framework Draft High-level Principles for the Evaluation of Financial Education Programmes Draft Guidelines on Financial Education at School & Guidance on Learning Framework   Governments... [more...]

Taken frome Consumers International website: Netherlands: Consumentenbond's financial services campaign 'Do you understand money? Make sure you do' 02 Jun 2011 Consumentenbond has launched its campaign titled Do you understand money? Make sure you do. Consumentenbond, a Netherlands-based consumer organisation, says this campaign attempts to challenge the financial sector... [more...]

Please find attached the current issue of CfRC's Journal, featuring articles on: • A summary of the recent CfRC study of bank CSR reporting • Professor Iain Ramsay on the need to rethink the role of consumer credit • Professor Toni Williams on the framing of the financial education debate • Reverend Paul Nicholoson on the impact of welfare cuts on the demand for high cost... [more...]

Financial Education (Reifner, Schelhowe) Journal of Social Science Education Volume 9, Number 2, pp 32-42, © JSSE 2010, ISSN 1618-5293 Text as PDF New, more or better financial education and financial literacy programmes should lead to improved financial capability, knowledge and outcomes. Yet we do not even know which terminology is most suitable for those projects who... [more...]

The OECD and the European Commission have focused a lot of their efforts in analysing the crisis from the viewpoint of an irresponsible illiterate consumer. The reports are attached below however, there is in our view too little from them critisizing the other side. Where are the reports showing the irresponsible lending practices from the banks, or the education which... [more...]

The Brussels based ECRI which in a strange amalgamation with CEPS and unclear and intransparent dependancy from the banking industry uses its close relations to the EU-Commission to misuse the need for financial education to white wash the banking industry from its failures in the financial crisis. ECRC in its different declarations has insisted that consumer have been... [more...]

The OECD and the Institut pour l'Education Financière du Public (IEFP) co-organised a symposium on the role of financial education in the context of the financial crisis (20 May 2009). The symposium gathered high-level officials and decision-makers from around the world to discuss and elevate the international policy dialogue on the importance of financial education at a... [more...]

The efforts by Bulgarian MEP Iliana Iotova are laudable but there may be too much utopia in her solution of simply “teaching children about basic finance so they avoid getting into bad debts at a later age”. The experience of other EU Member States with more financially literate consumers than those exposed to credit and debt over a shorter period of time (such as... [more...]

The ECRC will discuss financial education at its conference in London in November 13 and 14 2008. Does this group of experts see the problem of financial education as merely tackling "illiteracy" and promoting "capabilities" or are they also concerned with promoting responsible credit to consumers? European Commission press release: The European Commission has selected... [more...]

There are striking similarities between the activities of DG Market of the European Commission and Capital Hill as the reactions to the subprime crisis is concerned. While many including the Head of the Federal Reserve think it is time to educate bankers to be more cautious, provide more responsible credit and refrain from profiting from the needs of poor people an... [more...]

Find annexed the paper Bob Schmitz from the Luxembourg Consumer Association a partner of ECRC has presented to the European Parliament with regard to the efforts of the Eu-Commission in Financial Education or as officials and some banks prefer Financial Literacy or even Financial Capability: 1. Consumer empowerment via information and education – serious limits We are... [more...]

OECD/US TREASURY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FINANCIAL EDUCATION 7-8 May 2008 - Washington DC, USA The high-level international conference is co-organised by the OECD, as part of its on-going project on financial education, and the US Department of the Treasury. The main objective of this conference is to seek to advance and elevate dialogue on financial education in the... [more...]

COMMUNICATION ON FINANCIAL EDUCATION On 18 December, the Commission adopted a Communication on Financial Education. This Communication underlines the Commission's support for the provision of financial education delivered as close as possible to the citizens that need it, namely through Member State, national and regional authorities, non-governmental agencies and the... [more...]

OECD DEVELOPING CONSUMER POLICY TOOLS FOR DECISION-MAKERS Comments from ECRC partner, kuluttajavirasto, from the Finnish Consumer Agency's Newsletter no.6/2007 (Nov 2007) The OECD Committee on Consumer Policy is developing new ways to improve market efficiency. It is putting together a toolkit to give policy-makers better instruments for directing consumer policy. ... [more...]

DEBT CRISIS BRITAIN GETS THE MESSAGE 19th November 2007 By Maz Partasides A gadget which texts warnings to big spenders has been launched to solve Britain’s debt crisis. The cash tracker – dubbed the spendometer – fires off messages direct to mobile phones to stop people blowing their weekly budgets. Money experts hope the service will stop Brits spiralling into... [more...]

Monetary Policy and the Economy Q3/07 – chapters Robust Economic Activity in the Euro Area Breitenfellner, Elsinger, Vondra – Monetary Policy and the Economy Q3/07 Selected Central Banks’ Economic and Financial Literacy Programs Fluch – Monetary Policy and the Economy Q3/07 Financial Capability of Austrian Households Fessler, Martin Schürz, Wagner, Weber – Monetary... [more...]

W3: BANKS AT SCHOOL – CAN CONSUMERS BE EDUCATED? Statements from Dara Duguay (Citi); Lauren Willis (Loyola Law School, USA) [more...]

W3: BANKS AT SCHOOL – CAN CONSUMERS BE EDUCATED? Statements from Anne Schelhowe (SchülerBanking, Germany); Peter Avery (OECD); Erik Pointilliart (IEFP, France); Lauren Toni Williams (Kent Law School, UK) [more...]

W3: BANKS AT SCHOOL – CAN CONSUMERS BE EDUCATED? Saul Schwartz (Carleton University, Canada, Chair); Dara Duguay (Citi); Anne Schelhowe (SchülerBanking, Germany); Peter Avery (OECD); Erik Pointilliart (IEFP, France); Lauren Willis (Loyola Law School, USA); Toni Williams (Kent Law School, UK) Held on Friday Sept14th at 3.30pm, concurrent workshop is W4 on Scoring. ... [more...]

W3, BANKS AT SCHOOL—CAN CONSUMERS BE EDUCATED? Abstract by Lauren E. Willis, Associate Professor of Law, Loyola Law School Los Angeles, USA AGAINST CONSUMER FINANCIAL EDUCATION Quote from NAACP Financial Empowerment Guide: “Financial literacy provides the foundation to build wealth and fully participate in the economy. By understanding basic financial principles and... [more...]

EU-COMMISSION HOLDS CONFERENCE IN BRUSSELS - UK CONFERENCE AS A MODEL On Wednesday DG Internal Market holds its financial capability conference in Brussels. Like many of their initiatives also this one seems to be modelled to an UK predecessor the UK "Financial Capability Conference on 18th October 2006" where according to its website "Ed Balls, Economic Secretary to... [more...]

Remittances sent from the US to Mexico exceed informal finances that flow from developed to developing nations around the world by billions of dollars. Mexicans working both legally and illegally inside the US sent an estimated US$28.1 billion to relatives in Mexico in 2005 alone. Money sent home to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean represent 70 percent of the... [more...]

About 100 representatives from Swiss debt advice agencies including the head of Swiss Debt Advice Peter Gründler from Zurich, Mario Roncoroni from Berne Debt Restructuring, as well as bankers and officials from government and communities attended the first national ECRC conference which was dedicated to Consumption, Credit and Debt. SWISS NEW CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 2002... [more...]

NATIONAL CREDIT EDUCATION WEEK 2006 (Tuesday September 12, ACA International, the Association of Credit and Collection) September 18-23, credit and collection professionals across the nation will team up to participate in National Credit Education Week. This annual event is a public service campaign to remind consumers about the importance of financial literacy and how... [more...]

CREDIT CARD CHEQUE INFORMATION BOOSTS CONSUMER AWARENESS (London, 7 September, DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY News Release (P/2006/197)) The Government is working closely with banks to ensure their customers get clearer information on credit card cheques. Following a consultation, the DTI found consumers wanted more information on how credit card cheques work. Lenders... [more...]

Further comments will be posted soon. Below are: ECRI's Consumer Financial Capability conference report, and the OECD's reference book on the subject of Financial Literacy. [more...]

How can financial education help consumers avoid overindebtedness? And how can education help consumers overcome overindebtedness once it occurs? What are the strengths and weaknesses of financial education as a preventative or curative measure? Is financial education the panacea that some see in it or would impartial financial advice be superior in some cases? For... [more...]

From the Report delivered by ECRI on the Consumer Financial Capability Workshop November 2005 (see Link) Catarina Frade and Cláudia Lopes (Observatory of Consumers’ Indebtedness, University of Coimbra, Portugal) based their study of the social and psychological factors affecting consumer financial literacy on a series of face-to-face interviews with Portuguese consumers.... [more...]

Anne Schelhowe from the institute for financial services based in Hamburg, explains her practical experience of school curricula and financial literacy of teenage school kids in Germany THE SCHÜLERBANKING CASE STUDY The objective of the learning project SchülerBanking developed by the institut für finanzdi-entsleistugnen (iff) is the sustainable promotion of skills in... [more...]

The recent paper from Saul Schwartz from the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University entitled "Counselling the Overindebted: A Comparative Perspective ", explains the different forms which counselling for overindebted or insolvent individuals can take. In the paper attached below, Saul Schwartz reviews the structure of debt counselling in several... [more...]

The recent article published by Professors Karen Gross and Susan Block-Lieb entitled "Empty mandate or opportunity for education? Pre-petition credit counselling and post-petition financial management education", explains credit counseling and financial literacy education under the new bankruptcy law in the USA. How individuals in bankruptcy can be provided the skills... [more...]

The attachement below contains the 2006 US report by the Financial Literacy Education Commission (part of FACTA) outlining its National Strategy for Financial Literacy. [more...]

Introduction 1. In the information society, modern means of communication are increasingly being used for the provision of financial services. Consumers are given the possibility to open an account, to obtain credit and to buy and sell financial instruments using one or more means of distance communication, such as the Internet. The aim of this paper is to find out 1)... [more...]

For Maria Alcantar, her newfound knowledge about finances will trickle down to her community where it is needed the most. ``For a woman, for a mother, this knowledge helps us become more independent,'' said the 44-year-old Van Nuys woman. ``Oftentimes in our homes, in our community, we let the men control the money. But if something should happen, if we get separated or... [more...]

The poor need financial services, but the majority of them lack access to savings and credit delivery. There are stereotyped beliefs-that the poor cannot save money and cannot repay loans and, therefore, are a default risk. The conventional response to this type of belief is that governments provide subsidised credit and ignore the importance of savings services. We... [more...]

Lisa Bastone hates saying no to prospective customers. The worst, she says, is when people with spotty banking histories want to open accounts at Washington Mutual Bank's West Tampa office, where she is branch manager. A few bounced checks and an outstanding debt to another bank results in bank managers across the country telling prospective customers they cannot open a... [more...]

Introduction The Smith Institute, in association with the OECD, organised a round-table discussion in November 2005 to make international comparisons of financial education. Taking part in this meeting were senior international decision-makers and practitioners. Their breadth of experience offered a rare chance to develop a comparative overview of this increasingly... [more...]

Financial Services extend together with modern market economy. They provide mighty tools for private investment and ameloiration of living conditions. But it is also a hazardous good that threatens the social and economic well being of people who lose their steady income or have to endure hardship like illness, accidents or family beakdowns. Market economy alone is not... [more...]