Winners of Financial Literacy Competition meet Bank of Russia Governor
On 29 March 2019, the winners and prize-winners of the XIV All-Russia Competition on Financial Literacy, the Financial Market, and Consumer Protection (for high school students) posed their questions to the Bank of Russia Governor, Elvira Nabiullina.
She congratulated the students for their achievements in the Competition and praised their financial knowledge. “The ability to manage your money and invest it is important for you personally but also benefits the economy as a whole. This is because the money you will save and invest can be a resource used to develop businesses: it is vital for our economic growth,” Elvira Nabiullina told the schoolchildren. “After winning this competition, many of you will want to pursue finance. It is a fascinating profession, but comes with great responsibility: you are responsible for other people's money, for their prosperity, and the prosperity of tens of millions of people depends on more than just professionalism; fair practices are paramount.”
The meeting at the Bank of Russia was attended by 70 schoolchildren from Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, the Amur Region, the Altai Territory, the Volgograd Region and other Russian regions. The high school students and the Bank of Russia Governor discussed the development of financial technologies and aspects of information security, as well as the Bank of Russia’s various areas of activity: from monetary policy to financial literacy. The schoolchildren were interested in issues related to personal finance investments. Elvira Nabiullina warned them about the dangers of investing in “fads” and encouraged them to think carefully about the risks of such investments.
The Financial Literacy Competition has been held since 2004. In 2019, a record number of people took part: 47 thousand schoolchildren from all regions of Russia. 28 participants became winners of the final stage, and 65 students were awarded various prizes.
In the academic year of 2018/2019, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation declared the event a Level II Competition meaning that winners and prize-winners will receive benefits when they enter the best universities in Russia.
It is not the first time the Bank of Russia has been involved in organising financial literacy competitions. Its contribution includes developing tasks for tests and written part of the competition, and proposing essay topics and questions for the blitz games. The competition tasks cover a vast range of topics on financial literacy spanning general information about the types of organisations operating in financial markets, the exchange rate, budget planning, debt burden analysis, and business profitability assessment.
