Santander (NYSE: SAN) recently released the report, entitled, ‘The Currency of Learning: Global Perspectives on Financial Education.’ This latest research report, based on a survey of 20,000 individuals that are now residing in 10 different countries, reveals how the gap between “perception and actual knowledge of financial matters is a widespread problem.”
The research report highlights several significant findings:
- Financial education ranks as the second most important subject that people would like to see taught in schools, ahead of traditional subjects such as history or science. However, this type of instruction is still not common: 84% of those who do not recall having received financial education at school said they would have liked to.
- People tend to believe they know more about finance than they actually do. While 61% of respondents claimed to have financial knowledge, only 32% answered correctly.
- Social media is increasingly perceived as a source of information on financial education: one in five respondents would turn to it for financial guidance, a figure that rises to one in three among young people aged 16 to 24.
- The topics people most want to learn about are investing (63%), saving (61%), and taxes (51%), areas many wish they had studied in school.
This latest research study reinforces Santander’s ongoing commitment to financial education as “a key element of its approach to promoting financial wellbeing and inclusion.”
Their banking institution reportedly runs various programs in order to help people manage their finances, “understand risks such as fraud, and build financial resilience.”
These range of initiatives, which they consistently adapt to local needs across all their core markets and align with OECD/INFE principles, “primarily target young people, entrepreneurs, senior citizens, and vulnerable groups.”
This past year alone, more than 4 million people worldwide reportedly “took part in Santander’s financial education activities and content.”
With rising cost of living and crippling inflation in many low-income and developing economies, it has become imperative for educators as well as key policymakers to take a more serious approach towards enabling financial literacy initiatives. When business leaders and academic institutes start taking financial education more seriously, we might finally see significant improvements in global financial inclusion and overall wellbeing (as measured with HDI and other metrics).