Third meeting of the working group for monitoring the implementation of the Strategy for Financial Education and Financial Inclusion

The National Bank, together with other financial regulators and private and civil sector entities involved in financial education and financial inclusion, held the third meeting of the working group for monitoring the implementation of the Strategy for Financial Education and Financial Inclusion.

The meeting was also attended by a representative of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of North Macedonia, who presented the newly adopted Consumer Protection Law. Thus the representatives of the private and civil sectors learnt about the novelties that this law introduces for the financial sector, in particular greater transparency and better information of users of financial services, including digital financial services.

The National Bank representative presented the trends in financial education and inclusion in our country. It was noted that there was an increasing trend in several financial inclusion indicators, partly due to the pandemic-related factors, namely in the indicators of account holding, payment card holding and use, as well as digital payments. In the area of financial education, there is still room for improving the financial knowledge in our country compared to developed countries. The population’s propensity to save improved, but is still lower compared to the average in Europe and Central Asia, seen as a source of emergency funds as well as old age funds. Promotion and education about available investment alternatives and use of digital financial services seem to be necessities of modern life.

These meetings foster the dialogue among regulators, private and civil sector entities involved in financial education and serve as a platform for sharing proposals and experiences to strengthen financial inclusion and consumer protection in the financial system, as a prerequisite for successful implementation of the Strategy for Financial Education and Financial Inclusion.