The President of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), José María Roldán, reaffirmed yesterday the institutions’ commitment to promoting financial education during the second edition of the Federico Prades Award, granted to economist Verónica Frisancho for her work on financial education taught in schools and its benefits for students, teachers and their families.
“A banking system that works efficiently in the service of society needs the collaboration of educated, free and responsible citizens. I am convinced that Federico would agree with this idea and with this project, which the AEB and its member banks will continue to drive forward with all the means at their disposal,” said José María Roldán.
In presenting her work, the award winner stressed that there is scientific evidence of the benefits of financial education, especially when knowledge is included in compulsory education, and therefore highlighted the importance of research and of bringing together the efforts of the public and private sectors to promote effective initiatives.
“The gains are reflected not only in greater financial knowledge and skills, but also in better financial behaviours over time,” said Verónica Frisancho in the discussion she held on the importance of financial education in our day-to-day lives with experts from the public, private and academic spheres.
Evidence shows that the population is not familiar with concepts such as inflation, compound interest rates or risk diversification, and that a lack of knowledge can make it difficult to manage personal finances, said Laura Hospido, an economist in the Microeconomic Studies Division at the Bank of Spain. “Given the effort involved in acquiring these skills, it is advisable to tailor training to those who need it,” she stated.
For Paula Papp, Director of Financial Services at Frontier Economics, it is not enough to provide training in basic financial concepts; rather, “to help with financial decision-making, it is essential to understand how we make those decisions”, since we are often affected by overconfidence or an emotional aversion to loss.
Along the same lines, Ildefonso Méndez, Associate Professor at the University of Murcia, stressed that promoting students’ non-cognitive skills enhances the effectiveness of financial education initiatives. “Self-regulation skills,” he emphasised, “are more important than IQ for children to achieve a good level of well-being throughout life”.
The Federico Prades Award, whose jury is chaired by Gonzalo Solana, recognises the work of the former AEB economic adviser for more than 20 years, during which he made a decisive contribution to understanding our economy, proposing policies to improve economic and social development, and anticipating the framework within which Spanish financial institutions had to develop their business models.
