Meeting of the minds on global financial literacy

The urgency of education accompanying the advancement in technology was echoed by moderator Maya Fisher French, a South African personal finance journalist, who noted that “highly sophisticated financial products bring sophisticated challenges,” especially in politically and economically sensitive parts of the world that often experience political and economic “shock.”

Helping to highlight some of those barriers were top finance officials from Mexico, Ukraine and Turkey (watch the panel discussion here). Mexico’s Deputy Minister of Finance and Public Credit Vanessa Rubio-Marquez said that many consumers in remote, mountain regions of Mexico do not have access to internet and that her country’s government is working to provide broadband access to over 40 million consumers in these regions. Interestingly, this is still a challenge faced in developed countries, as former United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel stated that more than 34 million Americans still do not have access to broadband internet.

Another major challenge to helping citizens become financially capable is the issue of government trust. In Ukraine, for example, rogue banks have made consumers wary of trusting financial institutions and products. Tymofiy Mylovanov of Ukraine’s National Bank said that in order to restore that trust, government reforms in the areas of financial protection and empowerment have to work and with quick results or else consumers will lose faith in these efforts. He said that understanding how financial products work is also critical to helping move people out of the shadow economy and into the financial mainstream.

The gender gap presents another major impediment to universal financial capability. (Watch the panel discussion on this topic here). According to Dr. Anna Zelentsova of Russia, one of the biggest challenges for women in many parts of the world is a lack of financial confidence, which is the result of not having access to a basic checking or savings account. In more developed countries like the United States, a lack of fiscal confidence negatively impacts women in the workforce, especially when it comes to negotiating for higher salaries and positions. 

To answer this challenge, Stanford University visiting scholar Dr. Tracey Wilen, said that in order for women to take control of their financial and professional futures, they need to start looking at themselves as a product with a revenue stream. However, women don’t have to go it alone, nor should they, suggested Rise Up Founder and Executive Director Dr. Denise Raquel Dunning. She called for men to help in this area by working to open doors for women wherever possible.

One of the important ways in which the financial potential of citizens can be unlocked is through technology. (Watch the panel discussion here). Since the “future belongs to the connected,” as former FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel exclaimed, the summit also explored ways in which technology can be better harnessed to expand the reach and scope of financial literacy. Ted Gonder, co-founder and CEO of Moneythink, issued a challenge to those in the technology space to put an end to “romanticizing” the whole notion of expanding access to financial education just for the sake of expanding that reach. Because not every consumer is tech savvy or understands how information is relevant to their lives, the production and implementation of technology needs to be done in a way that has a real, beneficial and lasting impact for the consumer.

In closing, Susan Keating, president and CEO of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, said that while much progress has been made to advance financial education on both a content and technology level, a lot more work needs to be done in marrying these two levels (watch more here).  In that spirit, she called for community banks to make more technology investments by working closely with the private sector to deliver impactful tools and resources.

The summit also featured two program showcases. The first was the Chicago Fed’s Money Smart Week Money Smart Kid Essay Competition. The second was a financial theater program created by Visa in Mexico called Professor Q: Discover the Magic Behind Your Financial Power. This educational show, developed in 2010, transforms entertainment into an opportunity to teach young people how to be smart with their money.

Following the 2017 Financial Literacy Summit, Visa led a Show Me the Money Quest walking tour of Chicago financial institutions with local middle school students. At each stop, the students learned about the important work that local government, financial institutions and startups are doing to keep our economy and monetary systems running smoothly. These locations included 1871 – Chicago’s Technology and Entrepreneurship Center, the Illinois State Treasurer’s office, City Hall of Chicago, Harold Washington Library, Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The Show Me the Money Quest also included Summit speakers and Visa clients.

To view a full broadcast of the summit, watch here or visit www.finlitsummit.org.  

For more information on Visa’s financial literacy programs, visit www.practicalmoneyskills.com.