Context:

One of the aims of the European Banking Authority (EBA) is to ‘review and coordinate financial literacy and education initiatives by the competent authorities’. The report is based on the EBA repository, which consists of 84 financial education initiatives that were taken by the national authorities responsible for supervising the financial services and products that are within the EBA’s scope of action.

The report focuses on four key characteristics of the initiatives: subject matter, format, target group and type of output produced. The report also sets out the NSAs’ (national supervisory authorities’) insights into financial education by presenting lessons learned and experiences gained by NSAs when carrying out the financial education initiatives included in the EBA repository.

The study:

The report presents a general view of the most common approaches used by the NSAs as reported in the initiatives collated in the repository. It focuses on four key characteristics of the initiatives: subject matter, format, target group and type of output produced.

Lessons learned are organised following a possible sequential process of developing and implementing financial education initiatives, and include lessons learned in the identification of financial education needs, in the design and implementation of the initiatives, and in the assessment of the success of the initiatives. In addition, and taking a different perspective, the report provides some insights expressed by NSAs in relation to some specific initiatives, such as initiatives aimed at consumers in general and initiatives for school students.

Key findings:

• Lessons learned are organised in-line with key steps involved in developing and implementing financial education initiatives, including the identification of financial education needs, design and implementation, and evaluation.
• The report provides some insights expressed by NSAs in relation to some specific initiatives, such as initiatives aimed at consumers in general and initiatives for school students.
• Most NSAs agree on the need to improve financial education because of the increasingly complex financial choices that citizens must make.
• The success of financial education initiatives depends on the ability of the national authority to reach the target group and, eventually, to provide participants with useful information that helps them to take better financial decisions.
• A first set of lessons learned reported by NSAs on how to reach the target group are related to the nature of the target group, i.e. narrow versus broad. For example, some NSAs reach narrow target groups by focusing on their specific characteristics.

Points to consider:

• The study is a literature review of reporting documentations. It is an overview rather than an in depth analysis.
• The conclusions offered by the review tend to lack detail and specificity, offering a review of limited use in policy and practice settings.
• The report does not evaluate the success or otherwise of specific interventions, but largely offers generalities.

• The review will offer a basic introductory account of national practice.

• The methodological nature of the review does not lend itself to generalisability.