BME takes financial education onto the street

On 1st October, for the third year running, BME will answer people's questions about investments in securities markets

• The initiative is part of "Financial Education Day", which the CNMV (Spanish Securities Market) and the Bank of Spain have organised for the past four years with collaboration from BME

• It takes place simultaneously in four major Spanish cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia

• The events in 2016 and 2017 saw participation from just over 1,000 people

On 1st October, as part of Financial Education Day, BME will undertake a new campaign to spread financial knowledge as part of its “Face-to-face Financial Education” program, an open educational experience held for the third year running in the cities where the four Spanish exchanges have their headquarters: Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia.

BME will be at its stand to answer any questions from people, the exact location of which is published on the website www.diadelaeducacionfinanciera.es. Opening hours will be from 10 am to 6 pm, without a break.

Throughout the day anyone interested can ask questions about anything relating to investing in the stock exchange and other securities markets. An answer will be provided there and then and, if necessary, they will be told how and where to find out more information. They will also be asked to fill in an anonymous questionnaire which will help BME to improve guidance and development through its financial education and awareness programs that it offers for different groups across Spain each year.

Spain is one of the developed countries with the highest level of private investor participation in the stock exchange, accounting for 20% of Spanish company listed shares. This results in more protection for household savings due to portfolio diversification and positive long-term return on shares compared to other investing options, according to a large part of academic literature on the topic.

However, various research papers and questionnaires about the level of financial literacy amongst adults and young people around the world reveal that this is very low even though finance features in a large part of people's everyday life. Spain is no exception, which is why BME became a partner of the Financial Education Plan that the CNMV and the Bank of Spain have organised since 2008.

The Financial Education Plan is part of a wider international trend to promote an increase in people's financial literacy regardless of their social and economic background and age. Financial Education Day is one of the Plan initiatives and stresses that public institutions and market participants should be willing to permanently contribute to making the system more transparent and protect investors.

Participants in BME's initiative are invited to fill in a questionnaire about their preferences and opinions about savings and investment. More than 600 questionnaires completed in 2016 and 2017 revealed that most people think that their level of financial training is only sufficient (50%), or not bad (30%). However, the vast majority (almost 100%) admit the importance of the population's financial education and believe that more financial literacy would boost their confidence in investment products and protection for their savings.

Another revealing result from the questionnaires so far is that around 55% of participants claimed to have invested in products traded on the stock exchange, although most of them view this as difficult and 60% think that a high level of knowledge is required to invest or they are mistrustful of this option.