Simply about money

Improving financial literacy is one of the key goals of the Development Strategy of the Financial Sector of Ukraine until 2025. Financial affordability contributes to many of sustainable development goals, in addition to overcoming poverty: ensuring gender equality and quality education, promoting economic growth and full employment. 

THE PROBLEM OF SOCIETY AND BUSINESS
According to USAID Financial Sector Transformation 2021 survey, Ukraine’s Financial Literacy Index score is 12.3 out of 21 possible. The level of awareness of Ukrainians about financial products has increased and is now approaching the OECD average: 79% of Ukrainians know about at least 5 financial products. However, the level of use of financial services by Ukrainians is lower than in OECD countries: only 57% of Ukrainians have bought financial products in the last 2 years. This is well below the average level of use of financial services. The level of financial literacy of Ukrainians is the lowest in the age group of 18-24 years and 60+ years.

This situation has a negative impact on Ukrainians and business. Families do not have an established financial airbag. They allocate the family budget incorrectly, do not save for education and pensions, do not increase wealth, borrow incorrectly, falling into debt pits. Ukrainians still actively use cash, although non-cash payments have many advantages. There is still a high level of card fraud. For businesses, this is a loss in the level of trust, customer loyalty, profits. The wealthier and more educated Ukrainians are, the more successful the financial sector is. 

SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM SITUATION
If in previous years the bank was focused on raising the level of financial literacy among its clients – using the People’s Banker magazine, meetings dedicated to financial literacy and materials on social networks, in 2021 the bank took responsibility for spreading financial literacy among all Ukrainians, development of the business environment throughout Ukraine. 

Modern technologies and partnerships have helped to cover a large and diverse audience. FUIB has created 2 video courses for different audiences and needs, with different partners, at different educational platforms. Both free courses are affordable and convenient – everyone can learn using the phone, anywhere and anytime. 

1st educational video course for a wide audience from schoolchildren to people of elegant age – “Simply about money” on the Prometheus online educational platform. This basic literacy course debunks the most common myths about Ukraine’s banking system and teaches you how to manage your finances. The course is designed for those who still think that most foreign banking systems are better than the Ukrainian one; banks close from time to time, so they are unreliable; a bank is difficult and incomprehensible; to keep money in the bank is unprofitable and dangerous; a loan is debt pit due to hidden commissions and unclear conditions. During the course students will learn the following: how to choose a reliable bank and open an account, make a deposit according to the purpose and borrow money correctly, get rid of the fear of loans and make money using a credit card, make payments quickly and protect own funds from fraudsters. In addition to video lectures, tasks that help students to track their own financial habits, calculate the fee for opening a deposit, determine the cost and repayment schedule of the loan were prepared. At the end of each unit, there is an opportunity to complete test tasks and check your knowledge. To obtain a certificate you must score 60% of the total points.

Course https://courses.prometheus.org.ua/courses/course-v1:PUMB+SM101+2021_T1/about 

2nd educational video course on the Diya. Digital literacy platform is specially designed for Ukrainian youth in partnership with NBU and Ministry of Digital Development – “Financial Sensei”. The ability to manage personal finances is the key to a young person’s success and independence. During the course, the blogger – “financial sensei” – experiments with students, shares experiences and learns new things about finance. It considers important real life situations: how to plan a budget and accumulate, save money and gather for the dream thing, how to use the credit limit and not to pay interest, how to save own money from cyber fraudsters and manage own funds online anywhere in the world.  

Course https://osvita.diia.gov.ua/courses/finansovyy-sensey 

Each of the courses was difficult for us in its own way. The course on the Prometheus platform required a consistent explanation in simple words of all financial literacy – from the origin of banks to investing. And it was difficult to explain some difficult questions in a simple way to everyone, not only for our experts, but also for the methodologist. The Financial Sensei blog’s task was to give information in an easy, humorous way, to involve young people in learning. Often the latest edits to the courses were made on the set. 

Project team

The following people worked on the projects: bank experts, methodologists, film crew, partners. Investments in shooting video literacy lessons for 2 educational platforms amounted to UAH 783,000. 15 experts of the bank worked as intellectual volunteers during their working hours; they invested more than 400 hours.

We hope that our video courses will be useful for many Ukrainians. That they will help to change financial behavior and life for the better. They will teach to save, accumulate and multiply funds; to set a financial goal and achieve it using banking products and services; to manage finances in remote channels safely, conveniently and independently; to see Ukrainian banks as reliable financial partners,” said Serhiy Chernenko, FUIB’s Chairman of the Board.

THE RESULTS OF THE DECISION MADE 

Impact on society

Simply About Money online course was posted on Prometheus on April 13. As of November 12, 2021, it has attracted 6,677 students. 1,195 students received certificates of successful completion of the course. KPI rate – 17.9%, usually 7%. The course was attended by both students and people of elegant age. Most students are in the age groups 20-24, 25-29, the proportion of female participants among students was 47.1%. 

Financial Sensei series was posted on the website Diya. Digital literacy platform on April 26. As of November 12, 2021, 1,193 young people have become viewers of the blog. 64% of students passed the final test. In October, 2021, the series was posted on the bank’s YouTube channel – and has 636 unique viewers in a month.

Each course participant is now able to change their and their families’ lives for the better by starting to manage their own finances.

Impact on business

How does the work on improving literacy together with other sustainable initiatives of the bank affect business performance?

– Reduction by 12% during the year of the number of appeals to the Transaction Monitoring Center, FUIB’s cybersecurity unit (according to the bank’s data). 

– Reduction by 60% from May to November 2021 of the number of complaints that were due to ignorance of how to properly use credit products, lending conditions (according to the bank’s data). 

– Increase by 8% in September 2021 compared to June 2020 in the spontaneous knowledge of the FUIB brand among the adult population as a whole (CBR study).  

– Increase by 4% in September 2021 compared to July 2020 of the share of the active population that is ready to consider FUIB when choosing a new bank for cooperation (CBR study) 

– Increase by 30% in September 2021 compared to July 2020 of the NPS among the active audience (index of readiness to recommend the bank, for general cooperation) (CBR study) 

Next steps 

In the future we plan not to stop and to create projects of national scale to increase the literacy of the population and training courses for low mobility groups.  

Lessons learned

What we learned themselves and what we advise you?

  • Look for partners, because you are stronger in the partnership.

  • Implement the project in small steps, test the audience and make changes quickly.

  • Involve your company’s experts in projects – people trust professionals more.

  • Give employees the opportunity to volunteer during business hours.

 

Be financially literate! Change your and Ukraine’s life for the better!

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