Financial Education Day: how has financial education improved over the last decade?
Updated:
6 OCT, 2025
By Joanna Piwko from RankiaPro Europe
Today, October 6th, Spain is celebrating Financial Education Day, a day that aims to raise awareness among citizens of how important it is to acquire a level of financial literacy at different stages of life. This is a fantastic initiative that could serve as a model for all of Europe, especially given that financial literacy remains low across the EU. Fewer than one in five EU citizens have a high level of financial literacy, and only about a quarter of respondents answered at least four out of five financial knowledge questions correctly. So, how can we tackle this issue and drive real change? We asked an expert.
The European challenge of turning savers into investors
Josep Soler-Albertí, economist and financial adviser. Founder of EFPA and Executive director of EFPA Spain
The financial diagnosis of Europe is clear and unequivocal. We have enough savings, both the existing stock and the flow that continues to grow it. However, a large and excessive portion of these savings is not being properly channelled toward destinations that could contribute to boosting European competitiveness.
The continent's economy requires large volumes of well-directed investment: toward innovation, greater added value and productivity, and deeper integration in key sectors, including finance. Mobilizing more European savings into European investment would not only help transform the production system toward higher levels of competitiveness, but it should also align with our sustainability and security or defence goals.
In this way, European companies, especially SMEs, could aim to complement the currently dominant bank financing and access funding with risk levels beyond what the banking sector can assume under their tight current regulation. Additionally, these savers — finally turned into investors by accessing capital markets — would significantly improve their retirement outlook by multiplying their currently insufficient complementary pension funds to support fragile public pension systems. We therefore know that shifting savings toward capital markets would have several parallel effects and advantages, essential for the continent to progress and avoid decline.
If Europe's financial diagnosis is almost unanimously shared, to start the therapeutic process that should follow is much more complex. We know we should improve the financial literacy of savers and their willingness to invest, but we are starting with poor communication of the diagnosis to the “patient,” who should be aware that their current saving behaviour — overly focused on deposits, bank accounts, and short-term debt — carries a high risk of losing purchasing power, of failing to generate returns that secure increasingly long retirements, and of not contributing effectively to the development of the European economy. In fact, even a good portion of the savings invested at present are in North American companies and markets that currently offer more attractive potential returns.
We face a demand-side gap that can only be closed or at least reduced with better financial education, with an investor protection framework that does not discourage investment, and — above all — establishing the right incentives, such as through user-friendly and easy to understand instruments, lower overall management and distribution costs, providing quality financial advice, and specially by being fiscally attractive. It doesn't seem like we're making much progress in this direction. Neither the financial sector wants to give up margins, nor do governments seem willing to reduce or forego public revenue.
If the mechanisms to promote investment demand do not move along much, we also don't see progress on the supply side. Despite repeated calls for greater integration of financial markets, in Europe each country remains highly protective of its small capital market, thus limiting size and liquidity for investors, and thus unable to compete with American markets.
As for businesses’ companies, their size in Europe is also clearly expandable and improvable — far behind listed American companies and, in private capital, the offering is more limited and less attractive than that of the United States.
Too many obstacles for the optimists, especially because there is not enough awareness of the problem among savers, businesses, markets, and least of all, governments, and worst of all, there is no willingness to face it.
