Purpose
The Financial Education Initiative launched in 2017 marked AFG’s commitment to contributingto the collective effort of educating savers about financial matters and participating in key market initiatives, notably the Stratégie nationale d’éducation financière, led by the Banque de France, where AFG is a member of the operational committee.
The Financial Education Mission was established with two main objectives:
1/ Promoting Financial Education
The mission is driven by the belief that informed citizens are the key to managing their savings and investments. It aims to bring issues related to personal savings into the public conversation, with a non-commercial approach focused on spreading knowledge and understanding individual behavior.
Currently, the lack of financial education is pushing savings towards conservative, guaranteed, and liquid investments. As a result, savers miss out on potential returns, and their savings fail to adequately fund the economy in the long term.
For AFG, raising awareness of asset management services and products serves two purposes: first, to ensure that investors’ allocations align with their life goals, needs, and expected returns, and second, to ensure these allocations are diversified, market-oriented, and contribute to the sound financing of the economy.
2/ Promoting the Asset Management Professions
AFG’s initiatives target students through higher education institutions. The goal is to introduce them to the various roles within asset management companies and the broader asset management industry. Since asset management is less known compared to banking and insurance, AFG aims to raise awareness of this field and its professions in order to attract new talent. These initiatives will be pursued in collaboration with the AFG Diversity Club members.
The Financial Education Mission is managed by the Economic Studies Department, with support from the Communications Department. To increase the impact and visibility of these efforts, additional resources and distribution channels are needed. To strengthen the Mission, a Financial Education Club will be created, open to AFG members. This new body, aligned with existing AFG practices, will bring together stakeholders to continue advancing these objectives.
Goals
These new resources and skills should create leverage for :
1/ Uniting stakeholders
- By contributing to the debate on financial education issues.
2/ Collaborating and taking action together
- Providing educational content to help investors improve their financial literacy.
- Sharing members’ expertise and knowledge of the asset management industry through student engagement.
- Establishing partnerships with educational organizations to further develop financial education.
- Publishing reports on financial education to offer insights into investor behavior and best practices.
- Working with authorities to shape financial education policies and regulations.
- Participating in awareness campaigns, such as financial education week*
The Club Education financière is organized around two bodies:
- The Financial Education Club plenary session.
- The Financial Education Club Board.
The Club is managed by the Research and Communications Departments. Meetings are scheduled by the Board and approved by the President of the Financial Education Club.