Financial Education: The BCRA and the Province of San Juan Reached an Agreement

Miguel Pesce, President of the BCRA, and Sergio Uñac, Governor of the province of San Juan, signed today an agreement for cooperation in financial education. It seeks to boost users’ skills and strengthen the financial inclusion of the most vulnerable sectors.

The BCRA has been developing federal educational programs together with provincial governments with a view to providing financial education across the country. Last week, the BCRA signed an agreement with the province of Santa Fe. In 2020, the BCRA trained teachers from the provinces of Catamarca, San Luis, and Neuquén. These programs together with the teaching materials developed in cooperation with the Argentine Ministry of Education are aimed at encouraging users to make a better use of financial services and paving the way for them to make informed decisions.

“Today, we are called to work on key issues, education and financial inclusion,” asserted Pesce, and continued to claim: “New challenges and significant technological changes lay ahead and bring us closer together but demand education anyhow.” The President referred to the developments in the payment system, particularly to electronic payments: “People should get acquainted with these instruments, their advantages and risks.” He went on saying: “Education helps to train people for managing these instruments and to make them aware of unknown issues.” Finally, he highlighted the outcome of the BCRA´s educational programs. “Through the school, we will reach out kids, and trough them, their families, thus rising to the challenges to come,” he concluded.

In turn, Uñac underlined the importance of reaching an agreement and asserted: “Today, financial education is a must as education was two centuries ago. This agreement materializes federalism in our country. Argentina is a federal country, and provinces, even the smaller ones, can contribute to this project and are ready to get involved in this type of training,” he said and added: “All the ministries in the province of San Juan are concerned with awareness raising on the steps to be taken in the near horizon and the way we can work together in this field.” Sergio Woyecheszen—BCRA Vice President—, Marisa López—Minister of Finance in the Province of San Juan—, Daniela Bossio—Financial Regulations Deputy General Manager—, Gastón Repetto—Financial Inclusion Senior Manager—, and Mariano Iglesias—Financial Education Manager—attended the virtual meeting.

Agreement with San Juan

The agreement signed with the province of San Juan lays the foundations for the BCRA to move forward on different lines of action in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economy and Public Finances, and the Ministry of Human Development and Social Promotion, all of them falling under the jurisdiction of San Juan.

This way, activities, contents, and teaching materials may be tailored to the needs of teachers, high school students, and micro-entrepreneurs, among others.

BCRA’s Financial Education Programs

In 2020, the BCRA made courses available online for 567 teachers (from the provinces of Catamarca, San Luis, and Neuquén), who worked in classroom with 5,965 students from 166 schools (51 of which are rural schools). Students carried out activities with the aim of sharing the knowledge and skills so acquired with their community (family, senior citizens, neighbors, among others).

These programs focus on different topics: comparison and choice of financial products, saving and investment strategies, and use of electronic means of payments, electronic channels for different transactions, and credit instruments, just to mention a few.

May 11, 2021.