Outcomes of the Financial Literacy Summit

July 20th, 2011 - NZCU Employees

The Retirement Commission held the Financial Literacy Summit in Wellington on 21 June 2011

Here are the key points from the summit…

Financial capability begins in the classroom. Government support for funding of financial literacy in schools is deemed to be a priority.
More collaboration between public, private, community and education sectors is required.
Financial Literacy needs a more strategic approach as financial education within community groups (with low levels of financial literacy) is currently too ad hoc.
The finance sector needs to play a larger role in improving financial literacy particularly through their existing communication with customers.

and the key themes…

We need to understand more about how people make the jump from having financial literacy information and education to changing their behaviour around money – learning from behavioural economics.
There is a realisation that financial education and information programmes do not guarantee a change in behaviour, especially for those aged 18-24 years as they are generally less financially literate than the rest of the population and have little interest in the topic.
Last but not least, that for maximum impact those delivering the information need to be trusted.