Romanians’ perception of financial education

The study “Romanians’ perception of financial education”, conducted by the market research agency iSense Solutions, commissioned by BankingNews, reveals that 94% of Romanians in urban areas have heard of the term “financial education”, 8 out of 10 people consider financial education useful, whether they have received it or not, and managing the family budget seems to be the most interesting topic for Romanians, followed by savings, taxes and inflation.

Only 1 in 3 Romanians say they have received financial education in a formal environment, so there is plenty of room for growth. They give themselves an average score of 6.6 in their self-assessment of their level of financial education. The study also reveals that financially educated Romanians are more careful with their spending, more thrifty and more confident about their financial future. They are also more likely to have mortgages, more likely to have savings products such as deposits and government bonds, more likely to invest in stocks and mutual funds. Half of Romanians who have received financial education say they either learned on their own or at school. Men tend to be more self-taught than women. Seniors also say they learned such concepts at school to a greater extent. In general, Romanians learn about financial education online from online sites, social networks or the media. Social networks tend to be more attractive to young men, while mass media is more popular among men. The market research also shows that people with less access to education (low and medium education) have significantly less access to active sources of information on financial matters than people with higher education. This makes it less clear to these people who to expect financial education programs from and what information they can receive. Romanians with low and medium education are also more likely to have lower incomes and are less confident about their financial future. Essentially, the higher your personal income, the more useful financial education is seen as. Invariably, vulnerable groups can be positively impacted by CSR financial education programs.

When asked which of the banks in Romania they had heard about financial education projects, with the possibility of multiple answers, the survey respondents indicated BCR, Banca Transilvania and ING Bank as the leading credit institutions in terms of financial education projects, followed by Raiffeisen Bank and BRD Groupe Société Générale.
According to the market research, banks that have financial education projects are seen as responsible, modern and innovative. At the same time, 48% of respondents indicated that they would be more likely to recommend a credit institution that does financial education, while 47% of respondents said they trust such a bank more.

The iSense Solutions study was conducted online on a sample of 511 respondents, being representative for the urban environment in Romania, with a degree of error of +/-4.3% at a 95% confidence level. The analysis was presented by Traian Năstase, iSense Solutions Managing Partner, during the debate “Financial education, a hype or a bridge”, organized by BankingNews on October 31, 2024, World Saving Day. The discussions at the conference captured the importance of financial education in the healthy and harmonious development of Romanian society and the role that financial education can play in the process of financial inclusion.