Sebastian Skuza, Deputy Chair of Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (KNF), delivered a speech during the opening of the second day of the 8th Congress of Financial Education and Entrepreneurship as part of the 12th edition of the Global Money Week.

Key points addressed by Sebastian Skuza: 

• Global Money Week (GMW) is an annual international campaign aimed at improving financial literacy among children and youth. Urząd Komisji Nadzoru Finansowego (UKNF) is the GMW national coordinator. The global organiser of the GMW is the OECD Network on Financial Education (OECD/INFE). The main purpose of the GMW is to provide children and youth with access to financial education, so that they can gain both the knowledge and skills that will allow them to make informed financial decisions, thus increasing their financial resilience and well-being.
• Every year in March, during the campaign week, public and private institutions as well as non-profit organisations come together to organise various activities for children and youth with the aim of piquing their interest in finance and highlighting the importance of financial education.
• Financial literacy is an indispensable element of everyone’s life that requires constant reinforcement, at each stage of life. If a society has appropriate financial literacy, this is beneficial on the micro-scale, at the level of households, and in terms of the whole economy. Children and youth, in particular, should broaden their knowledge of finance, develop certain habits, attitudes and behaviours in this area from earliest years, both when it comes to saving and finance management, considering the risks and threats normally occurring in financial investments.
• The 12th edition of the GMW promotes an important, yet very simple message: Protect your money, secure your future. The theme of the GMW 2024 focuses on the safe management of money and emphasises the importance of a responsible and conscious attitude to personal finance through the understanding of potential threats. 
• We should pay attention to the progressive digitalisation of our life, including in the financial sector. The development of digitalisation of the financial sector requires the improvement of new skills related to that phenomenon. Both in Poland and in many countries worldwide, the digitalisation of the financial industry brings new benefits to consumers but also generates new threats. It is of key importance to each financial system and society to engage in financial education about the threats, including the understanding of the essence of financial risk. We should show those threats and introduce habits related to the broadly defined cybersecurity. This is why we should discuss the importance of financial education.
• The UKNF treats the GMW as an effective tool to raise awareness and improve financial literacy of future financial market participants, including with regard to introducing habits related to the broadly defined cybersecurity.  
• The role of the UKNF as the GMW coordinator in Poland is to expand the campaign nationally. With that in mind, we’re trying to expand the agenda of the new editions of the GMW and we make sure that the campaign is promoted among its addressees: children and youth. This would not be possible without the cooperation with other institutions responsible for financial education in Poland. Thanks to that joint effort, with each year the agenda of the GMW becomes more and more attractive to the participants, which translates into more recognisability, more interest in participation, thus more interest in finance among children and youth.
• Cooperation for financial education is a source of strength and potential. With integrated efforts for financial education, we increase its effectiveness. The GMW creates space for cooperation in the field of financial education. It’s the greatest advantage of the campaign.