Improving the Financial Literacy of the Population: The Foreign Experience

Abstract

The article is aimed at studying foreign experience in improving the financial literacy of the population and possible ways of its implementation in Ukraine. The article substantiates the need to increase the financial literacy of the population in the context of strengthening financial inclusion. The level of financial literacy of the population of Ukraine, as reflected by the Financial Literacy Index, which is calculated according to the USAID methodology, is analyzed. Based on the study of theoretical and methodological approaches, the essence of the category of «financial literacy» is disclosed. Four areas of formation of cognitive knowledge, competences and skills as to the financial literacy of financially isolated and low-income citizens are defined: 1) availability of basic financial services; 2) availability of mobile banking services; 3) availability of microfinance; 4) availability of innovative FinTech solutions. The study of foreign experience demonstrated the development of various directions of improving financial literacy: 1) involving business in improving financial literacy; 2) improving the financial literacy of schoolchildren and young people; 3) improving the financial literacy of the poor population; 4) improving financial literacy in the workplace; 5) remote improvement of financial literacy; 6) national programs to improve financial literacy. The study of international best practices allowed to identify a number of problems in the domestic practice of strengthening financial literacy, namely: 1) insufficient work with vulnerable groups of the population (taking into account age and geography); 2) problematic age categories are: 18-24 years old (especially 18-19 years old) and over 60 years old; 3) rural population has low financial literacy; 4) a significant proportion of bank depositors do not know about the existence of guaranteeing deposits of individuals; 5) a small number of bank customers know that banks must disclose information about the real interest rate on loans. In order to increase the level of financial literacy of the population, taking into account the best foreign experience, the need to introduce the following measures is substantiated: 1) teaching children basic economic categories from an early age; 2) development of special compulsory financial literacy courses for schoolchildren; 3) creation of a system of teacher training; 4) popularization of the need to increase the level of financial literacy (master classes, round tables, lectures, seminars, conferences, methodological literature, etc.); 5) creation of information and advisory centers for providing assistance to the population on financial issues; 6) media involvement, use of social networks, development of websites, platforms for the development of financial literacy. Prospect for further research in this direction is the development of models for quantitative assessment of the impact of the level of financial literacy on financial inclusion by means of: 1) logistics regression; 2) Probit regression. Further attention require the management of risks associated with financial literacy, financial behavior and financial inclusion.