Online financial education: trends and challenges

Nowadays, online financial education is more widespread than ever, to the point that free portals and MOOCs (online courses) are available to everyone. 

Many of them have a basic approach, so the real training or professional training requires going to a prestigious center, making a more significant effort, and allocating economic resources. But, undoubtedly, this demonstrates the interest in sharing financial concepts to create a society educated in savings and finances. 

Thus, we must distinguish two concepts: 

• Digital financial education: focused on training the population to acquire economic culture. It encompasses the necessary knowledge to enable them, on the one hand, to be financially independent and, on the other hand, to manage banking products and applications to make queries and perform operations in digital banking. 

• Online financial education: focused on training professionals in the banking and investment sector, i.e., experts who provide technical advice to citizens who do not know how to manage their money. 

In the first case, we have means of private entities informing the general population, as is the case of Finances for mortals. And we also have actions such as the Financial Education Plan of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and the Bank of Spain, in place since 2008, which includes, among others, actions aimed at people over 65 years of age and even immersion in schools to reach the younger population. 

The second case is the one that concerns us and on which we will focus in the following lines. 

Online financial education

Online financial education is a current concept that is becoming more and more important because it combines traditional training and new technological resources, thus facilitating its accessibility. 

That is to say, it maintains the line of teaching based on an explanation of contents by a teacher and practical application if necessary, although it does so in an innovative format: virtual campuses. 

This makes it easier for more people who want to get a degree in finance to do so because studies in digital format are more accessible. And in turn, it allows more employees in banking and finance to expand their skills without having to travel. 

For this reason, many training centers and banks are creating 100% online financial education plans.

Financial education in Spain

On December 23, 2020, Organic Law 3/2020 on education was approved, which, among other measures, establishes the consolidation of financial education among Spanish students. 

Therefore, until the year 2025, the presence of this subject in the school curriculum of the different educational stages (Primary, Secondary, Vocational Training, and University) will be increased. 

What does this mean? That financial education plans for bank employees and economic professionals must consider that, in a few years, the general population will have greater culture and skills in this sector. 

Therefore, they must adapt to the new clientele profile that knows what savings are, what debt is, and even understands the different types of products in the catalogs (investment funds, pension plans, insurance, etc.). 

As they have a better command of this field, they will require a deeper and more detailed explanation of concepts unknown to them until now. 

Financial education plan within the banking sector

The banking sector faces the challenge of better training and keeping up to date to reach an increasingly expert public. Therefore, training accessible 24×7 from anywhere is an increasingly demanded option. And even more so since the recognition of qualifications obtained without taking an exam in person.

The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and the Bank of Spain established on April 13, 2020, that LCCI and MiFID II certifications could be obtained through non-face-to-face means, as had been done until then. 

The reason for this change was due to the Covid – 19 situation. The pandemic was a turning point in giving carte blanche to digital assessment processes in entities that advise on investment services. 

However, the regulations require that the monitoring system of the computer selected to monitor the online exams guarantees the security that our SMOWL proctoring system follows:

1- Visual identification of the student and ID card. 

2- Visual and auditory review during the test.

3- Proof documentation of the supervision. 

A real example of a 100% online bank certification: Cecabank

The Madrid-based banking training school, Cecabank, adapted to the new legislation to offer its clients official qualifications during the pandemic. How did it do it? With the SMOWL online evaluation system.

Such has been the success that they will continue with this monitoring system while testing the insurance sector. You can read the entire case here. 

Where are we headed?

Implementing new technologies in the banking and education sectors has burst onto the scene at great speed. For this reason, we deduce that training institutions that adapt to the changes will be better positioned because they will reach more people more agilely through online financial education.   

It is becoming increasingly common to perform financial transactions and obtain academic qualifications at the click of a button without the need to travel. Perhaps that is why Financial Education Day, which is celebrated on the first Monday of October, has included aspects such as digitalization in its agenda in recent years.