Financial literacy

Financial literacy should be
learned as a basic skill

FFI considers it important that every Finn is capable of managing his or her personal finances, and supports the nation-wide improvement of financial skills in cooperation with other Finnish organisations and associations. Finland needs a national financial literacy strategy.

Everyone should gain a basic understanding of financial and economic matters already in school. They should be equipped for life with a toolset that covers wise spending habits, insuring against personal and property risks, and what entrepreneurship, saving and investing entail.

Our objectives

Finland needs a national strategy for financial literacy in line with the proposal issued by the Bank of Finland. Approved by the Ministry of Justice, the strategy must now be implemented and this implementation should also engage stakeholder groups.
Good financial literacy reduces inequality and gives people better opportunities in life. More resources are needed in the teaching of economics during teacher training and vocational education.
Digital skills are a necessity in modern life. We must invest especially in the digital and financial literacy of the elderly.

Our actions

We influence curriculums and study materials through the Ministry of Education and Culture. The aim is to have schools and educational institutions equip people with the basic skills in the management of their personal finances and risks.
We took part in formulating a proposal for a national strategy to promote financial literacy in Finland. The implementation and coordination of the strategy was launched under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice in 2022.
We supply comprehensive schools with learning materials they can use in the teaching of personal finances. Zaldo.fi is a gamified learning environment for comprehensive schools that also includes a national competition. Zaldo is Finland’s contribution to European Money Week – an international campaign aimed at improving financial literacy across Europe. Every year, one Finnish class gets to represent Finland in the European Money Quiz finale.
The national Economic Guru competition is aimed for students in Finnish upper secondary schools. The competition has two parts: the first part seeks to draw focus on the importance of economics in schools, and the second part gives the floor to young talent at the final event.
Talous tutuksi (“getting to know the economy”) is a series of seminars aimed at social studies teachers. They consist of topical talks on the various areas of the economy.
Finance Finland has sponsored free insurance-themed workshops in schools since 2019. These workshops have already attracted a total of 3,300 teenagers. The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) and the Finnish Financial Ombudsman Bureau (FINE) have participated in designing the workshop contents. The key question was: What kind of statutory insurance cover does every Finn automatically get, and which insurances are up to the individual to take care of?
We collaborate with senior citizens associations, and are developing ways to support people in their financial preparedness for the latter years of their life.
Finnish banks are putting in a substantial amount of voluntary work to improve the financial literacy of Finns. According to the report (2020) by the Bank of Finland the financial sector entities had worked on the largest number of financial literacy projects in Finland.

FFI also collaborates with many other organisations to promote financial literacy. Our partners include, for example, the OECD, the EBF, the EBTN, Finnish non-governmental organisations and Finnish ministries.