Financial Education Initiatives on Fraud and Cyber Security

More than One out of Two Claims Brought Before the Financial Disputes Arbitrator Succeed

The three European supervisory authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA) published a joint thematic report on financial education initiatives on digitalisation, with a focus on cyber security, fraud and scams.

The Report identifies best practices that NCAs and other public institutions may follow in designing and implementing their financial education initiatives.

The authorities point out that gaps in financial education and unfamiliarity with digital technologies can lead to financial vulnerability and exclusion of consumers from services, exposing them to the risk of becoming victims of fraud.

To address this issue, 12 best practices have been identified. They aim at providing support to NCAs and other public institutions to increase the effectiveness of their financial education, thus contributing to improving consumers’ digital financial education.

The authorities consider to be best practices:

  • publishing a blacklist of fraudulent providers to assist consumers assessing the financial risks of financial products and services linked to new technologies, such as crypto assets;
  • reaching out to consumers who are averse to technology and teach them how to use digital tools to access financial services safely;
  • working with teachers to understand their educational needs and support them developing and testing appropriate teaching materials in order to diffuse students’ financial education;
  • packaging financial education initiatives appropriately to increase the range, e.g. by including entertainment elements, such as games;
  • applying search engine optimisation to ensure that NCA financial education websites appear among the first search results when consumers look for information on specific financial topics.