Many people find it difficult to make decisions about their finances. The majority of Swedes understand financial terms but are not knowledgeable about how these concepts impact their own finances. Finansinspektionen (FI) is releasing a report today that evaluates the authority’s work with financial education and identifies a number of areas where deficient financial literacy could impose significant risks on the consumer.
As part of its consumer protection work, FI has been strengthening the position of the consumer on the financial market through financial education since 2009. The primary objective is to safeguard the basic financial knowledge of Sweden's population and contribute to improved financial literacy in society. FI has received an assignment from the Government to evaluate this work.
A key part of this work is twofold: to teach professionals in order to reach particularly vulnerable groups and to assist schools with teaching material on personal finances.
We note in the report that fraud is a steadily growing problem for consumers, and we have observed that many consumers are not knowledgeable about internet safety and risky investments. The use of educational initiatives as a preventive measure can contribute to reducing the number of vulnerable consumers by increasing their resilience.The report also shows that there are major differences in both the financial literacy and confidence of different groups. FI therefore targets new arrivals, parents and young adults with tailored educational initiatives.
FI represents a central part of the work with personal finance education in Sweden, in part through its own initiatives but also through collaboration with others. The Swedish National Network on Financial Education, which the authority coordinates, has played a key role in authorities, industry actors and non-profit organisation being able to collaborate and work effectively in this area. The development we have seen on the financial market in the past few years and the consumer risks we are seeing today make the work with financial education increasingly important, and more initiatives could be taken to strengthen consumers.
