One of the Bank of Finland’s strategic priorities is to foster citizens’ financial literacy. In January 2021, Bank of Finland Governor Olli Rehn submitted to Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson a proposal for a national financial literacy strategy, which was drawn up under the leadership of the Bank of Finland. The Bank promotes financial literacy in cooperation with other actors in this field. To this end, the activities of the Bank of Finland Museum were reorganised in 2021.

With the completion of Finland’s first national financial literacy strategy, the Bank of Finland also aims to play a key role in the implementation of the strategy.

In 2021, the Bank of Finland supported the Ministry of Justice in taking the next steps with the strategy.

The Ministry of Justice received budget funding starting in 2022 for the implementation of the strategy. The Bank of Finland also has a representative on the Advisory Board on Personal Financial Management, which is led by the Ministry of Justice.

The Bank of Finland’s objective is to encourage citizens’ interest in financial matters

One of the Bank of Finland’s strategic priorities for the operational planning period 2021–2023 is contributing to domestic economic policy and fostering financial literacy.

The goal is to encourage citizens’ interest in economic and financial matters and to help them understand how important the overall economy and monetary policy are for their own financial activities.

This will serve as a basis for enabling citizens to make the best possible decisions in their own finances.

In 2021, the Bank of Finland Museum’s activities were expanded to include a Financial Literacy Centre

In 2021, the activities of the Bank of Finland Museum were expanded, enabling it to operate not only as a museum and visiting centre but also as Finland’s Financial Literacy Centre.

The Museum’s new mission is ‘Understand the economy better – manage your finances better’. The vision is the same as the one set out in the national financial literacy strategy, namely that Finland will have the world’s best financial literacy by 2030.

The COVID-19 pandemic kept the Bank of Finland Museum closed for a long time, enabling in-depth development of the Museum’s activities to foster citizens’ financial literacy. To this end, the Bank remodelled the Museum’s premises, listened to stakeholders’ views and wishes, modified the Museum’s content, such as display case materials, multimedia and guided tours, and piloted new activities.

As a new form of activity, Museum visitors can play the cooperation partners’ online games Moneymaster and Välttämätön, tarpeellinen, turha (‘Essential, necessary, unnecessary’).

The Bank of Finland Museum organises various meetings and discussion events as well as seminars in cooperation with the network of participants involved.

With the launch of the Financial Literacy Centre, the Bank of Finland Museum now serves as a forum for sharing economic and financial information and as a physical and virtual meeting place for stakeholders and for the general public.

The new activities of the Museum cater better than before for the needs of schools and teachers as well as other cooperation partners that foster financial literacy. On its website Learn economy, the Bank of Finland, in collaboration with Professor Panu Kalmi from the University of Vaasa, has published material used in financial education in three different languages; Finnish, Swedish and English.

The Bank of Finland assesses and develops the Financial Literacy Centre in continuous interaction with its stakeholders and the Museum’s visitors.

In addition, the Bank seeks to find new target groups, especially among the citizens whose financial knowledge should be strengthened.

Cooperation between educational institutions fosters financial literacy of the young

Young people are the main target group for the promotion of financial literacy. They can be easily reached in extensive cooperation with educational institutions.

The Bank of Finland organises and manages contacts with the ECB and other national central banks within the framework of the annual Generation €uro Students’ Award competition.

The Bank annually organises a series of talks and seminars on economic and financial matters to school teachers. These ‘Talous tutuksi’ educational events are organised in cooperation with Finance Finland, the Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland, the Finnish National Agency for Education, the Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion and Economy and Youth TAT. The Bank of Finland is in charge of organising the events in 2021 and 2022.

The Bank is also represented in the steering group of the project on teacher and teacher trainers’ financial education skills. In autumn 2021, Helsinki Graduate School of Economics launched an online course on the economy (in Finnish), which received funding from the Bank of Finland.

The members of the Bank of Finland Board and experts from the Bank regularly visit educational institutions to give lectures on economic issues.

The Bank has also participated in the financial skills project coordinated by the Vamos services of the Helsinki Deaconess Foundation. In this project, employees from the Bank have taught financial skills to young people who are marginalised and at risk of social exclusion.

The Bank of Finland is involved in international financial literacy networks

The Bank of Finland actively participates in international financial literacy activities.

The Bank is Finland is only full member in the OECD’s International Network on Financial Education (OECD/INFE) and is also involved in two of its working groups.

The Bank of Finland has presented Finland’s financial literacy strategy to the Network. The Bank also informs national stakeholders of the meetings of OECD/INFE, which are held twice a year, and of research findings disseminated within the Network.

In addition to the Network, the Bank of Finland cooperates with financial literacy researchers of different countries.

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