A very encouraging outcome despite Covid health emergency, with increasing figures and a widening audience: this is how Annamaria Lusardi, Director of the National Committee for Financial Education, summarizes the Financial Education Month, at its third edition this year, ending today in coincidence with the conclusion of the World Investor Week (WIW), the initiative promoted in Italy by Consob within a project launched four years ago by Iosco, the forum of national regulatory and supervisory authorities on financial markets.

Common goal: to raise the financial literacy level of the Italians, enabling them to better manage both their money and their planning for the future through investment choices made in full awareness.

"The balance of the third edition of the Financial Education Month, which took place this year in the midst of a health emergency, is extremely encouraging", Lusardi commented today at the closing of both the Month and the WIW (click here to the website) . "The events organized throughout Italy were more than 600, an even higher amount than last year, which achieved a large participation even if managed mostly through webinars. This is to confirm that, in Italy, financial education is not only needed but also of a great interest. It is a need felt by citizens of all ages, by women, by children. It is also an evidence of the increased awareness that a basic knowledge on the subjects of finance, pensions and insurance sectors can contribute to a more peacefully living and to better coping with difficulties, such as the present crisis ".

Even 617 initiatives have been scheduled, proposed by 182 subjects including institutions, associations and companies. The offer for education involved a public of all ages, children, students, adults, pertaining to the various sectors of finance, insurance and welfare, the latter being at the core of this third edition.

"How much to save to guarantee a decent standard of living at the end of your working life? And how to save? To be fully aware of how to address these questions, both education and social security and insurance information play a decisive role because they help us to cope with complex choices in uncertainty  situations", remarked Mario Padula, President of COVIP.

Extensive use was also made this year, in the context of WIW, of educational tools combining both education and entertainment (edutainment) such as fairy tales (see the tale 'Sofia goes on the Stock Exchange'), theater performances (see the brochure of 'Occhio alle truffe!' (Watch for Scams!) Finance on the stage), interactive games (see ' Lear…ning – A Consob Game for Investors'), but also conferences (see the form 'Investments in a time of crisis') and webinars. The offer for education also involved the business world, in particular SMEs, with a specific emphasis to the issues of sustainable finance (see the conference 'Sustainable finance, transparency and financial education for companies').

"Thanks also to the cooperation with the members of the EduFin Committee and the WIW partners (see the presentation in the opening press conference) - remarked Nadia Linciano, Consob representative in the Committee - we have reached, fully online, a number of people larger than usual, through the communication of the significance of both improving everyone's skills and understanding the mental mechanisms underlying economic-financial decisions ".

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