learnt as a child. This goes for handling money as much as it goes for doing household chores or handling money. Research also shows that adults who had received a sound financial education when young, were better at managing their money than those who hadn’t. One way to enhance financial awareness is to improve access to financial products & services by children. Having access to safe and reliable financial products & services is a way for children to learn about ways to save, and get a feeling for financial planning. It provides our youngest generation with an opportunity to build the skills they need to improve their economic and financial position, and thus their social position. Especially in developing countries, financial awareness, taught along with social rights and responsibilities, will empower children to take charge of their own lives and to escape the poverty trap and thus to ensure their inclusion. Such financial products & services might take the form of child-friendly bank accounts that feature the same facilities as bank accounts for grown-ups. Something along the lines of the famous socalled Zilvervloot account, which every Dutch citizen over the age of 50 grew up with. One interesting feature of this account was that children at the age of 18 got a bonus of 10% on the total amount saved. This extra feature was introduced and paid by the Dutch government, to stimulate savings in the aftermath of World War II. As I said, such banking facilities for children would be very welcome today. Banking regulation should therefore be organised or reorganised in such a way that child friendly savings accounts are allowed and stimulated. What has happened in practice so far? While some progress has been made in this respect, I’d really applaud and further stimulate the willingness of the financial sector, at least in the Netherlands, to create child-friendly savings products, possibly with tax-friendly aspects. Here I’d also like to draw attention to the interests of the financial sector itself. Better financial awareness, starting with children, will reduce the probability of future financial failures, which is certainly in the interest of the financial sector. Connecting children to the bank may help foster a close customer-bank relation. And, finally, I’d also applaud initiatives by education organisations in many countries to develop financial education programmes at primary schools. So far, I’ve stood here as President of De Nederlandsche Bank. But I also happen to be a father, a father of an eight-year-old son and six-year-old daughter. My son, named Age, already possesses financial awareness, I’m proud to say. How this came about I’ll tell you right now. On the 30th of April, we celebrate our Queen’s birthday in this country. It’s a national holiday we always look forward to and which is celebrated outdoors, throughout the country. If you’d happen to be here on that day you would see the streets festooned in orange and people wearing orangecoloured clothing and funny hats and wigs. But for the present purpose, I’ll focus on one aspect of this special day. At the crack of dawn, literally tens of thousands of grown-ups and children, including my son, leave their homes armed with a carpet and carrying boxes and bags filled with all sorts of second-hand articles, varying from toys to comic books, from kitchen utensils to tools, you name it. For the better part of the day, they will be lining the streets in cities and villages, seated on carpets displaying those articles, trying to sell them all as soon as possible so as to be able to take part in the other festivities. By the end of the afternoon, my son will be the proud owner of some 40 to 50 euros. Incidentally, not for long, I’m afraid, for by the end of the day he’ll have spent most of it, if not all. But it’s not only the fact that he has earned his own money that I’d like to stress here. For, more than that, he has learned something about supply and demand, haggling about prices, social interaction, and
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Children And Youth Reshaping The Future Of Finance