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Financial Literacy: Squeezing More From Less Finding and Utilizing Resources for Investor Education Programmes Panel Tom Hamza, President, Investor Education Fund. IFIE/IOSCO Investor Education Conference Washington D.C. March 2-3, 2009. IEF- Who We Are.
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Financial Literacy: Squeezing More From LessFinding and Utilizing Resources for Investor Education Programmes PanelTom Hamza, President, Investor Education Fund IFIE/IOSCO Investor Education Conference Washington D.C. March 2-3, 2009
IEF- Who We Are • Established by the Ontario Securities Commission in 2000 to fund financial and investor literacy efforts • Hosts Canada’s largest and most comprehensive independent financial literacy website • Reach 50,000+ students per year through our High School lecture series and have trained over 3,000 teachers on how to use our Taking Stock financial literacy course • Partner with major media outlets to champion investor literacy and develop easy-to-understand materials for Canadians • Work with dozens of community and charitable groups to develop financial literacy programs for at-risk groups across Canada
Investor Literacy In Crisis • There is a growing need for literacy training around the globe • A recession/depression that was at least partly due to financial illiteracy • The Western economies have seen low rates of retirement savings, negative rates of household asset growth and lack of focus on this subject in the culture in general • Rising unemployment and other economic factors may make a bad situation worse • The increase in need is occurring at a time of stable or diminishing resources • Industry-funded regulators will face decreased revenues as the financial services industry experiences a sharp decline • Government funded organizations will likely face pressure as we begin to pay for stimulus measures • Third-party funding including foundations are also experiencing funding pressures
Programs are Getting Better- And More Extensive • Launching programs effectively is no longer a simple matter of ‘putting the material on the web’ or ‘making pamphlets’ • The dry lessons of financial education must be packaged in a way that interests the disinterested • Even cost-effective Web 2.0/social media campaigns work as best as part of an integrated campaign that includes traditional media • Leadership on this issue has come from campaigns with complex multimedia distribution • New Zealand’s Sorted Campaign combines the internet, schools, television and other media • Similar campaigns in the UK and Australia have also relied on the advertising industry to deliver the message • This trend will continue as new mediums are used to talk directly to target groups $1.40 SIGNS The most effective multimedia campaigns must go beyond the internet- but who can afford to do that?
Campaigns Are Becoming More Sophisticated • Financial education as entertainment: A cartoon series designed to address financial issues facing young people including credit card debt, budgeting and investing • Multi-facted campaigns to reach consumers: • Printed material, media campaign and on-line tools designed to promote good financial and savings habits • New tools: “Gold for the Bold” financial education television program in Poland that is designed as a quiz show with celebrities talking about financial matters- true Edutainment (also radio shows and other programming)
Increased Demand - Resources= Increased cooperation • Tremendous pressure will be created to demonstrate tangible results with diminishing budgets • The leaders may be in a position to reduce their costs by licensing or selling certain turnkey products • Cooperation between jurisdictions- both with countries and potentially beyond- is the most logical outcome • The era of well-meaning local efforts may come to a close- and extranational cooperation may be the next step
Canada is already witnessing this • Canada is going through this consolidation right now • Federally, the Financial Consumers Agency of Canada has worked with us and other provincial securities commission in a way that was unheard of before • Strong efforts by this government have caused some innovative school and adult learning programs to be developed • Combination of provincial and self-regulatory organizations has concentrated resources rather than dividing them • Concentration of resources- through the creation of a national regulator- is happening which will further this trend • However, to really affect societal change this process will have to accelerate • Development –including advertising- is expensive • There are still 12 educational jurisdictions to work with • The sustained cost of public messaging is extremely high
The Good News • There are 2 major costs: media development and media placement • Opportunities to combine resources are obvious in many cases • Campaign co-development • Licensing opportunities between jurisdictions • Media buying opportunities • We are selling the same message; local regulatory changes can be easily reflected; professional standards cannot