National Strategies for Financial Literacy: Lessons from Experiences

Abstract

It is public interest that citizens be well-informed in the field of finances and make grounded financial decisions. Therefore in many countries the development of financial literacy became national priority, especially after the outbreak of the financial crisis. Since the Hungarian population was severely affected by the crisis, and lack of information and knowledge can be detected, the need for strategy is formulated over and over again. For the success it is suggested to have a closer look at the international experiences and explore the components of the successful strategies. According to the analysis of the OECD’s summary and several national strategies, we can determine common features in successful strategies: establishment of the design is based on surveys and thorough preparations, there is broad cooperation in the implementation phase, the strategies are evaluated and there is a feedback mechanism. The study also presents the survey of the State Audit Office of Hungary on financial literacy initiatives in Hungary.