Financial literacy is in short supply in Italy, even among the self-employed and business owners. Banca d'Italia responds by explaining “Quello che conta”.
The announcement came on Tuesday 10 April, live from the Salone del Risparmio in Milan: Banca d'Italia is launching a new website dedicated entirely to financial education. It is a significant move, with two main objectives. On one hand, to educate Italians on a series of basic concepts relating to the management of money and savings — concepts that come up repeatedly in daily life but are often the subject of misunderstandings and mistakes. On the other hand, to build a network by mapping all the training and awareness initiatives already active across the country, which will find an important showcase on the site itself. The portal is called "Quello che conta" and has officially been online since Monday 16 April.
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"It is important, depending on the categories, to try to design pathways that help people understand and that address their needs," Magda Bianco, head of Banca d'Italia's Customer Protection and Anti-Money Laundering Service, announced in a preview on Radio 24. More and more often, she continued, we find ourselves clicking to accept or signing documents without having fully understood what we are doing and what the future consequences will be. But it is absolutely necessary to reverse this habit, all the more so because life expectancy is increasing while, conversely, the amount of resources we are able to set aside is falling. Knowing where our savings end up, how to protect them and make the most of them therefore becomes the key to securing a more peaceful future.
https://youtu.be/M6SjBvk8ScU"
The portal's architecture is built around all the "firsts" of a life journey: the first money received as a gift or earned, the start of a stable job, the purchase of a home, the choice to live together and start a family, the arrival of children, and finally retirement age. For each of these moments, "Quello che conta" offers advice, practical guidance and a detailed list of all the banking and financial, insurance and pension products that can be used to manage one's money as effectively as possible and avoid unpleasant surprises.
The national strategy for financial, insurance and pension education, drawn up by the dedicated committee, is currently open for consultation. A strategy that is becoming increasingly urgent as the warning signs multiply over Italians' poor competence in these areas.
The most recent of these is the Iacofi survey (Indagine sull'Alfabetizzazione e le Competenze Finanziarie degli Italiani), conducted by Banca d'Italia at the beginning of 2017. Just over 30 per cent of Italians are familiar with basic economic concepts, compared with an OECD average of 62 per cent; a similar percentage demonstrate appropriate and prudent behaviours (here too, the OECD average exceeds ours by more than 20 percentage points). Italians fare slightly better when it comes to long-term planning.
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The most vulnerable groups are people on low incomes, the elderly and those with little formal education; contrary to the trend in other countries, women — including young women — score lower. Surprisingly, the self-employed and small business owners also have little familiarity with finance.