The Ministry of Justice has launched a highly welcome project to improve Finnish citizens’ financial literacy and access to help with over-indebtedness. The Finnish financial sector hopes to see the coordination and governance of financial literacy issues streamlined and concentrated under a single authority.
The government project focuses on more effective financial and debt counselling, models of early intervention to prevent further indebtedness, and new collaborative practices between the parties responsible for enforcement, financial and debt counselling, and social services.
“Strengthening financial and debt counselling is particularly welcome and needed. The increased cooperation will also be a valuable improvement”, says Lea Mäntyniemi, Director of Legislation at Finance Finland.
Several organisations and institutions have for years been carrying out commendable work among different target groups to improve financial literacy in Finland. However, Finland is lacking a national authority that would be responsible for monitoring this work, coordinating research and developing practices.
“The Ministry of Justice’s project is an excellent step forward in this matter. We hope it will also kick-start the process of determining a national financial literacy authority that would continue to operate even after the project has ended”, Mäntyniemi says. The project has been scheduled to last until the end of 2021.