Informative brochures to contribute to financial education of population
The citizens will be informed how they can protect themselves from over-indebtedness to banks and nonbank institutions, how the financial system in Moldova works and how they can increase their revenues by own investments. The National Bank of Moldova, together with the National Commission for Financial Markets, launched a series of informative brochures to contribute to the financial education of the population, IPN reports, quoting a press release of the central bank.
“Financial education is imperative as the financial products develop faster than the knowledge and skills of the people,” said National Bank governor Octavian Armașu, noting that helping to realize the risks posed by each financial product is the most powerful instrument that can be offered to the population for preventing financial crisis situations. “When we take out a loan, we should realize the related risks and to objectively assess our capacity to repay it,” stated the governor.
For his part, National Commission for Financial Markets chairman Valeriu Chițan said the significance of financial education yearly becomes more evident, especially in the context of the socioeconomic developments and the challenges typical of the countries in transition.
According to the National Bank, the volume of loans provided by banks to private individuals during the last three years rose by 7.5 billion lei, while of bank cards in circulation by over 450,000. The nonbank lending sector in the period witnessed a rise of almost 360,000 in the number of loan recipients. This means the nonbank lending organizations during three consecutive years provided by at least one new loan each working minute. These developments point to a swift rise in the use of financial products by the population. That’s why a higher level of financial knowledge is needed so as to prevent eventual risks, including the risk of over-indebtedness.
The analytical notes will focus on the most important concepts and financial products, such as inflation, effective annual interest rate, consumer loans, financial leasing and insurance. The brochures will be issued during the next two months and will be available on the websites of the institutions involved in the information campaign. The effort is a follow-up to the financial education project “Learn! Give meaning to money”.
