The paper has a twofold aim: the first is to introduce financial education topics to laypeople; the second is to provide an account of the efforts made by the Bank of Italy in this field. After providing an economic literature review, the paper summarizes the results of the financial literacy surveys held in Italy, and traces the evolution of the international policy debate. The paper also describes the initiatives undertaken by the Bank of Italy over the last 15 years, both for the youth and for adults.
From the early 2000s, the awareness of the importance of financial competences and of the benefits of the public policies has spread widely. The Bank of Italy has been among the pioneers of financial education in our country, showing an increasing commitment over time in favour not only of the youth in schools, but also of the general public as well as specific categories of adults. For instance, the Financial Education in Schools initiative has reached over 500.000 schoolchildren since its beginning; the Bank also offers secondary schools over 250 School-to-Work Transitioning Programmes (PCTO) a year which involve over 2.500 students. The financial education website has over 50.000 visitors per month.
