PRESS RELEASE

European Money Quiz engages 100.000+ kids on financial literacy

• European finals set for 7 May in Brussels with 28 countries, 26 languages
• New financial literacy book to be presented, to provide teacher guidance

BRUSSELS, 2 May 2019 – Young students from secondary schools in 28 European countries will meet in Brussels next week to compete against each other in the finals of the European Money Quiz, an international financial literacy competition facilitated by the banking sector that aims to encourage teachers and schools to educate their classes on personal finance.

According to a survey among participating countries, more than 100.000 young Europeans aged between 13 and 15 years old took part in this year’s quiz, more than double the number for 2018, when the quiz was played for the first time. Some 20.000 of them directly took part in one of the national finals organised in March with nearly 2.000 different schools.

“We are quite proud of the numbers. They show that there is a genuine thirst in schools across Europe to help kids become more financially literate,” said Wim Mijs, Chief Executive Officer of the European Banking Federation.

The European Money Quiz was introduced in 2017 by national banking associations across Europe under the coordination of the European Banking Federation, together with international online learning platform Kahoot! as a technology partner. The quiz has become a core activity also for European Money Week, a financial literacy awareness week that takes place every year during the second half of March.

“We developed the quiz together with financial education experts working for banking associations in 30 countries, with only a single objective: getting teachers and their pupils to talk about the role of money in their lives.  Increasingly, teachers recognize that financial literacy has become a life skill, especially in our digital age.”

Participants in the European finals in Brussels all emerged as winners of their respective national competitions. New countries taking part this year are Azerbaijan, Romania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Other participating teams come from Albania, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. The quiz also attracted online players in the United Kingdom, France, Denmark and Turkey.

Played in two rounds, the quiz finals will be based on a total of thirty financial literacy questions on various personal finance themes such as savings, debt, interest rates and managing risk. Each national team gets to answer these questions via the Kahoot! platform in their native language. The 2019 European finals will be played in 26 different languages, compared to 21 languages in 2018.  The 2019 European Money Quiz Champion  will be announced during the awards ceremony at the Dolce La Hulpe Hotel in Brussels on Tuesday afternoon. The top three winning schools will receive a cash prize of respectively €3.000, €2.000 and  €1.000 to spend on a financial education project of their own choice.

International edition of ‘First steps in Finance’ to be presented on 6 May

On Monday 6 May, during a financial education workshop for teachers as part of the European Money Quiz activities, the EBF will launch the international English-language edition of the book ‘First Steps in Finance’ by Icelandic author Gunnar Baldvinsson. The Icelandic edition was published last year as an initiative by the Icelandic Banking Association and has become a widely used resource in the country’s schools. The international edition seeks to provide guidance to teachers across Europe who are looking for ideas on teaching financial literacy.

For more on the European Money Quiz and to play the practice questions visit www.europeanmoneyquiz.eu.

MEDIA INFORMATION:

Journalists wishing to attend the award ceremony of the European Money Quiz finals on 7 May  and/or the book launch on 6 May can contact Raymond Frenken, Head of Communications & Financial Literacy at the European Banking Federation, on +32 2 496 52 59 47 or r.frenken@ebf.eu.

National contact points for the European Money Quiz:

https://www.ebf.eu/europeanmoneyquiz/nationalcontactpoints/

About the EBF:

The European Banking Federation is committed to a thriving European economy that is underpinned by a stable, secure and inclusive financial ecosystem, and to a flourishing society where financing is available to fund the dreams of citizens, businesses and innovators everywhere. The EBF serves as the voice of the European banking sector, bringing together 32 national banking associations in Europe that together represent some 3,500 banks – large and small, wholesale and retail, local and international.