In response to the UK government releasing the Financial Inclusion Strategy, Viktor Prokopenya, the Founder of Capital.com, has shared key insights with CI.
Viktor Prokopenya of Capital.com has said there is now a pressing need to improve financial literacy, which equates to “a need to improve decision making.” This may include what we should actually be buying, what not to purchase, and when to make such decisions.
Prokopenya added that should people “make more rational life decisions – the right job, the right life partner – they are generally happier and society functions much better.” They pointed out that irrational financial decisions tend to “lead to depression, anxiety and worse.”
While all of this seems very obvious and even common sense to some, there is still apparently a need to emphasize these points because people residing in the UK seem to be struggling when it comes to understanding how to properly manage their finances. Part of the problem stems from a significant lack of proper education and inadequate levels of financial literacy. One of the core issues is that the traditional school and education system simply do not focus enough on imparting financial education.
Prokopenya also stated that the United Kingdom government’s report provides an opportunity “to move from teaching finance towards teaching reasoning.”
They further noted that the need could “not be more urgent.”
Prokopenya continued:
“We live in an increasingly fragmented and dangerous world, with trust hard to come by. One of the fundamental principles of financial literacy – universal value, understood and accepted by everyone – is an expression of trust, a cornerstone of all civilised societies. We could do with a fresh injection of trust today.”
Indeed, socioeconomic challenges have led to a dramatic rise in global uncertainty. Consumers in the UK and other jurisdictions are finding it harder to manage their finances, especially in a post- COVID environment. Inflation and the rising cost of living in the United Kingdom as well as other nations has made it quite challenging to keep going for the majority of people.
In an effort to do its part to some extent, Capital.com said it is funding a five-year research program at The University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School to address issues caused by “a lack of financial literacy.”
The project will aim to bring together research from various professionals in the fields of behavioral finance and corporate social responsibility in order to hopefully find solutions that “help people improve their financial judgements.”
Capital.com is a fintech company that is claiming to be focused on helping more consumers participate in financial markets via online trading platforms.
Its platform reportedly enables investors to trade in various markets. Like many other solutions in the market today, the platform is fitted with risk management controls, up-to-date pricing and educational resources to support users in their trading journeys.