Press release: ASF celebrates financial education at World Investor Week

Bucharest, 17 October 2023 – The Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) is organising a series of actions and events dedicated to financial education from 16 to 20 October 2023, under the aegis of World Investor Week - WIW. The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of acquiring non-banking financial market knowledge among students, young people and the general public.

WIW Week, now at its seventh edition, kicked off on Monday at the Bucharest Stock Exchange, in the presence of more than 80 high school students who attended the opening trading session and a financial education workshop, aiming to raise awareness of stock market issues among the young.

Another event, which will take place on Thursday 19 October 2023 at WIW, is the debate ‘Who's running the game? Stock exchange vs. Crypto’, which will be attended by Cristian Logofătu, CFO Bittnet Systems, and George Rotariu, CEO Bitcoin Romania, and moderated by Paul Maior, president of Invest Club. The event, organised in partnership with the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, will take place in Aula 1 of the Polytechnic University from 15:00 to 17:00 and is addressed to students, pupils and other interested people.

As part of the WIW, ASF has programmed a series of financial education actions aimed at pupils, students and adults. Also, during WIW week, Depozitarul Central will offer free of charge the IBAN registration service.

The Financial Supervisory Authority will launch a three-month information campaign on online financial fraud during World Investor Week.

World Investor Week is an initiative of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). The Financial Supervisory Authority is a member of IOSCO and as such supports the efforts of the organization, which launched the World Investor Week concept in 2017, recognizing the need for financial education in the context of a changing financial market and increasingly risk-taking behavior.

Main actions organised by ASF under the aegis of WIW

 ‘The bell rings at the BSE!’ - an event that brings together more than 80 students at the Bucharest Stock Exchange to participate in the opening of the trading session and a financial education workshop.

Financial Wellness, the ASF financial education program dedicated to companies - seminar with wide national participation on the topic of capital market investments. The beneficiaries are members of the Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), an ASF partner organisation in this programme.

The EduFin Bootcamp - the first session of this Train-the-Trainer programme, in which volunteer lecturers will participate in training sessions held by ASF specialists in order to integrate them into the Authority's financial education themes and approach. Market representatives thus join ASF’s financial education efforts.

‘Who's running the game? Stock exchange vs. Crypto’ - an event organised in partnership with the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, which will take place in Aula 1 of the Polytechnic University, addressed to students, pupils and other interested people. The event will be attended by Cristian Logofătu, CFO Bittnet Systems, and George Rotariu, CEO Bitcoin Romania. Moderator - Paul Maior, president of Invest Club.

Voting in the ‘FinPitic and the Financial World’ drawing competition - voting will take place this week in the annual financial education story and drawing competition for students in grades 0-4.

Participation of ASF representatives as invited speakers at the international conference of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The Academic Laboratory - ASF programme dedicated to the university environment. Several seminars and webinars are organised this week for students of ASF partner universities.

Start2Learn - ASF programme dedicated to the pre-university environment, where formal financial education classes are held, complementary to the school curriculum.

Registration of the IBAN code by Depozitarul Central. This operation offers the possibility of registering the IBAN code free of charge for holders of financial instruments.

More details on ASF’s financial education projects can be found on edutime.ro. At least every six months, the Authority publishes such educational content, dedicated to different beneficiaries: children and young people, adult population or trainers. Within WIW, 10 new guides from the ASF Guide Collection will be published on this website, as well as new courses for students in the Academic Lab and for adults in the Financial Wellness programme. Moreover, on the occasion of WIW 2023, a new section is dedicated to digital financial education, with practical information content for online consumers.