Sergiu Manea, president of BCR: "We've lost the demographic war, but we can win the skills demographics"

Our country has lost the demographic war, but it can win in terms of skills demography, and financial education is an essential skill, Sergiu Manea, president of the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR), said yesterday at an event organized by the BNR.

The banker said: "From my point of view, it's quite clear that for the next generations we've kind of lost the demographic war and I think it's very important to see where we can win it. We can win in the skills demographic. Because at the end of the day, it's about growing the population that has a number of essential skills, life skills, community skills or functional skills. In this context, financial education is one of the essential skills both as a life, community and functional skill".

Sergiu Manea added: "Unfortunately, studies show that much more is needed than we are doing. 77% of Romanians declare themselves not at all or very little informed, but the situation is not different from the United States of America or Western Europe. What is really serious is that events out of control are seen by 50% of people working today as events that could significantly disrupt their family life, their personal life. Six out of ten Romanians are worried that unforeseen events would generate expenses that they would not be able to cover. Four out of ten Romanians do not have an emergency fund. 60% of Romanian employees with open-ended contracts cannot afford an unexpected expense close to 1,000 euros. Financial education therefore means smart long-term choices and, implicitly, a better and more prosperous future for each of us".

According to the president of the BCR, the school plays an extremely important role in the financial education process, but unfortunately, in his opinion, the school needs to be reformed.

"In the 2022-2023 school year, we carried out a pilot project in several schools in a county of Romania, through which we tried to understand how we could bring financial education into the core, into the common vocabulary of today's school. I wrote a report that will be presented in two to three weeks and that we hope will be taken into account for carrying out a reform activity and creating relevant public policies in this direction", said Sergiu Manea.

According to the banker, one of the conclusions of the project is that financial education means practical examples. "It means demolishing the myth "I'm ashamed to talk about money". And this can only be done through practical examples", said Sergiu Manea.

Another conclusion relates to the need to introduce the notions of financial education in all subjects and starting from a very early age, so that an appropriate vocabulary is created and discussions about money become something normal.

"Last but not least, we will have to invest significantly, and we will do so, in the development of teachers' skills, both in terms of the pedagogy of money and the functioning of money", said Sergiu Manea, who concluded: "The school can play a very important role by bringing the language within the reach of anyone!".