The French Banking Federation (Fédération Bancaire Française, FBF) has been developing the ‘I Invite a Banker to My Class’ program since 2015. Through a game-based educational experience, this program allows students aged 8 to 11 to start becoming aware of budget management, building on the school curriculum through fun educational workshops. As soon as they start earning money, children of any age can apply these new skills to manage and save their first income.
This initiative, which benefited 20,000 students in 2019, is expected to expand its reach after the program received the patronage of the Ministry of Education starting in 2020. Furthermore, this program is certified by the new financial education label created by the Banque de France. The FBF is also working on a new financial education initiative integrated into the Universal National Service, with the Banque de France and many other stakeholders, in order to offer a playful extracurricular activity to volunteers aged 16 to 18, focusing on concepts of budget payment, credit, and savings.
Additionally, the FBF runs the ‘Keys to the Bank’ program, widely recognized by the volunteering sector and social workers, offering free information and numerous tools available to the public to understand the daily workings of banking. In simple and educational language, this entirely free program helps individuals, entrepreneurs, and social agents find answers to their questions. Operational since 2015, this program assists over four million people each year.
The Minister of National Education and Youth, the Minister of Economy and Finance, and the Banque de France are the main national public bodies coordinating financial education in France, where it is a voluntary subject for primary and early secondary school students (up to 15 years old). French schools teach personal finance through other subjects such as mathematics, history, social sciences, and economics.
