“Comparing financial education experiences: Italy, Europe, the world” is the latest publication by Assopopolari. The volume is part of a complex financial education program launched several years ago. An analysis tool for verifying the level of knowledge of the elementary concepts of economics and finance necessary for orientation and for making informed choices between rapidly evolving banking products and services. The proposed analysis outlines a clearer picture of the levels of diffusion of financial literacy worldwide in order to prepare training and information tools and programs aimed at the knowledge needs of customers/consumers of banking and financial products and services.
The study, in relation to Italy, provides data that is certainly not exciting from which, however, a certain improvement can be glimpsed. In the list of countries analysed, our level of financial education is in 13th place, a position which, compared to that at the top of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, nonetheless pushes us to improve. Regardless of the recent controversies on the general cognitive level of Italian savers, the analysis reveals the existence of a level of financial education that is still not adequate for the level of development and the challenges posed by the markets. We need to work on several levels. School, at its various levels, is the ideal institution in which to channel an effort to raise awareness of financial behavior. However, interventions are also needed, in the short term, on the adult population.
For the General Secretary of Assopopolari, Giuseppe De Lucia Lumeno, author of the book: “Trust, for Popular Banks, is a central value, the fruit of a history of relationships and mutual understanding that matures also thanks to the activity aimed at inform and make customers and shareholders aware of the economic and financial choices they make on a daily basis. The bank has a duty to assist and guide, but the choices must be made autonomously and consciously by the customers. The study focuses on how far has been traveled and how much further needs to be traveled to achieve optimal levels of financial knowledge. Financial education – also for the local banks called upon to protect the invaluable relational heritage accumulated up to now – will condition the challenge for the future that our country is called to face and on which our real chances of success will be measured”.
