Keynote address by Commissioner McGuinness at OECD launch of Global Money Week 2024

Global Money Week 2024

Good morning.

I ' m delighted to join you for the launch of Global Money Week.

This year's theme – ‘Protect your money, secure your future' – is really important.

My thanks to Yoshiki Takeuchi, OECD Deputy Secretary-General, for the invitation to be with you.

And for his continued leadership on the issue of financial literacy.

Knowledge is key to protecting your money – knowing your way around money and what to do with it.

And it's important to start learning about this as early as possible.

Especially as the financial world is changing rapidly – and that will have the most impact on young people.

How you manage your money has a big impact throughout your life.

If you do it well, you are better equipped to face life ' s challenges and you won ' t have as much stress.

If you don't manage your money well, it can result in a lot of problems – financial problems and health problems too, both mental and physical.

Being knowledgeable about money also means being on the look-out for frauds and scams.

So it ' s really important that this year's Global Money Week is focusing on this issue.

We know that fraud is on the increase in the area of bank transfers, for example.

So a fraudster might pretend to be a bank official contacting you using the official phone number of the bank.

And manipulate you into giving them your details or urging you to make a transfer to ‘ secure your money ' .

Or they might hack the social media account of someone you know.

And then ask you to send them money to help pay a bill or because of an emergency.

People can and sadly are losing a lot of money this way.

The average amount lost through a fraudulent credit transfer in Europe is more than €4,000.

Another serious problem which is on the rise is the use of so-called ‘money mules', when people are persuaded or tricked into handing over their bank details.

And then money is funnelled through their bank account to hide its criminal origin – and this is money laundering.

The person whose account is used is known as a ‘ money mule ' .

Now very often young people are targeted with the promise of making some quick and easy money.

But they ' re putting themselves at risk of criminal prosecution.

We know that young people are more active on social media, they are more mobile and prefer making financial transactions online.

They are also less confident in managing their personal finances.

Unfortunately, this combination means that young people are at risk of becoming victims of fraud.

But of course it ' s not just young people.

We know that across the EU, people don ' t know as much as they should about money, and that leaves us at risk.

Last year, the European Commission carried out an EU-wide survey on financial literacy – the very first of its kind.

It found that only 18% of EU citizens had a high level of financial literacy.

And young people aged 18 to 24 had the lowest score across all age groups.

It suggests that young people aren't learning what they need when it comes to money.

And of course that's not their fault – unless they've had access to this information at an early age, how would they know?

So we need to do better.

We need to equip young people with the know-how for an informed and healthy relationship with money.

The European Union takes protecting consumers and tackling fraud very seriously.

And we've put in place several measures to combat fraud.

One of those measures is called ‘ Strong Customer Authentication ' .

You're probably familiar with this, even if you don ' t know the name.

It means that you generally need a second step when making a card payment online – like a code that ' s sent to your phone.

That makes it much harder for a fraudster to pay using a stolen card or stolen card details.

And this requirement has helped to reduce card fraud.

However, fraudsters adapt very and find new ways of scamming people.

And that means we need to adapt, too.

We have a new measure that will be implemented soon for euro transfers.

You'll be able to check very soon that the name on the account and the bank account number match.

So if a fraudster is impersonating a bank employee or claiming to be your friend or family member – you'll be able to see that the account number and name don ' t match.

We've also proposed that this measure should be extended across the European Union to cover non-euro currencies.

And we've proposed that consumers who are victims of fraudsters impersonating a bank employee should be entitled to a refund.

But frauds and scams will continue to evolve.

So we also want to oblige banks and other payment providers to keep their customers up to date and let them know if new types of payment fraud emerge.

And they'll need to organise training programmes on risks and trends for their customers and their staff.

Training and education is really important here.

We are tackling fraudsters – but we also want people to stop and think about what might be a scam, to arm them with a healthy scepticism.

And we want people to build up their financial knowledge more broadly, so they know their way around money.

The Commission and the OECD developed two financial competence frameworks – one for children and young people, and one for adults.

These set out the skills and attitudes you need to know your way around money.

They cover many different topics in areas like saving, investing, and budgeting, as well as fraud and scams.

So that already from a young age, you start to understand the importance of protecting passwords and pin codes.

And so you can identify the warning signs of scams – so that you know what to do if you're being targeted.

These frameworks act as a reference handbook, allowing people and organisations to develop educational tools and other initiatives.

We ' re encouraging Member States to take the frameworks into account in their national financial literacy strategies – and we ' re delighted that some Member States are already doing this.

These frameworks are the start of ensuring we have a shared understanding of financial literacy, so we can raise the bar across the European Union.

I want to see a transformation in financial education for people of all ages for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole.

Because having more financially literate individuals means a more resilient society.

Just recently, I hosted a high-level conference with the Belgian Financial Services Authority on financial literacy, financial resilience and financial inclusion.

This conference brought together policymakers, experts, the financial sector, civil society, and educational practitioners to learn from each other.

Many on the day shared a concern about more and more frequent and increasingly sophisticated fraud and scams.

And some of the concrete solutions proposed included introducing financial education in schools early on, getting different stakeholders in communities to work together better, and making sure that information provided to people is clear and straight-forward.

My vision is for a financial system that is more inclusive.

I ' d like to see a financial system that everybody can relate to and that everyone can participate in with confidence.

That includes both tackling fraudsters, and also helping people know how they can avoid scams.

Initiatives like Global Money Week are really important.

They help push this issue of financial education up the agenda.

This year ' s focus on protecting your money and securing your future will help give young people the tools and information they need for a better relationship with money.

Wishing you all a fruitful discussion today.

Thank you.