Visa Europe to extend MoneyIQ program through to 2013

The financial education program BaniIQ (MoneyIQ) carried out in Romanian by Visa Europe, member banks and project partners, will continue in 2013 after 55,000 Romanians were helped this year to better manager their personal finance.

Over 100 teachers held trainings for more than 7,000 students from high-school and universities in 64 Romanian cities. The information was next passed to another 21,000 adults, representing family members or friends. The teachers were trained by the non-profit organization Junior Achievement Romania.

“Romanians are becoming increasingly aware of the need to have access to financial education in order to better manage their daily spending, to understand and knowingly use financial products and services. This is one of the main reasons behind the success of our initiative and we decided to extend the program,” said Catalin Cretu, General Manager Romania, Visa Europe.

“Therefore, we have set an ambitious objective for the second edition and want to provide another 100,000 individuals with access to program information by the end of next year.”

Visa Europe developed the e-learning platform that www.baniiq.ro, which registered over 1.4 million hits from 43,500 unique viewers.

The company has closed a partnership with Biblionet for training local librarians from nine countries, which will hold financial literacy trainings for local communities. Thief program runs between September and December.

The MoneyIQ project is run by Visa Europe and the member banks from Romania, being implemented by Junior Achievement, with support from the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports, the United Nations Development Program and the National Authority for Consumers’ Protection.