26 April 2006
Speech by the Economic Secretary, Ivan Lewis
ifsProShare Student Investor Challenge
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Opening comments
1. Thank you – and let me say how pleased I am to be here at the 14th National Final of the ifsProShare Student Investor Challenge.
2. As a Treasury Minister, with a focus on the city, I couldn’t have designed a better event myself. Competition. Co-operation. Finance. Education. And fantasy money too.
3. Let me congratulate you all – engaging with the mechanics of stocks and trading, researching, assessing, learning. In many ways, this Investor Challenge is exactly the sort of innovative initiative that we are keen to see more of.
4. Why? Because better financial capability is a passport to full participation in society – and competitions like this one strike the right note in grabbing the attention, without dumbing down the learning.
Wider financial context
5. On a day-to-day basis, consumers increasingly take responsibility for some difficult personal financial decisions. How to provide the right solution for retirement and healthcare needs. Budgeting for day-to-day living. Saving for the future – and working out what to do if they end up with high levels of debt.
6. Let’s not forget that these decisions are made more challenging in a world of sophisticated marketing, with relatively easy access to credit and the acceptability of high levels of personal debt from a young age.
7. Only last month the FSA’s Financial Capability Baseline Survey into the general UK population highlighted the poor financial skills of 18-40 year olds and in particular those under 30 as being less capable than their elders.
8. Yet it is this group that today faces greater individual financial responsibilities.
9. So although a 25 year old in their first job after university may be earning what many of us would consider a good salary – they may also have a large student loan and overdraft to repay.
10. And that means they could well be facing difficult choices on taking out a mortgage, on whether to start a pension and on how to start saving to cover unexpected events.
Government action
11. So improving our national financial capability is a long-term challenge. Have no doubt, it is a challenge we have embraced.
12. How? By embedding financial capability into the functional maths component of GCSE maths all school children will learn the basics for moving into adult life.
13. As a parent, I know this fits in with what we all want for our kids – after all, as recent research has shown, personal finance was considered the 5th most important subject to learn behind English, maths, science and languages.
14. And helping teachers themselves to feel confident in discussing these issues helps too. For example, with the Learning Money Matters initiative being rolled out by the Personal Finance Education Group – a one-stop shop providing help, support and advice.
15. But in addition, we support the FSA’s work, leading the National Strategy for Financial Capability and other efforts like that of ifsProShare in providing courses for schools and colleges to prepare their students for vital life skills.
Closing remarks
16. So let me end on this. Everyone benefits from a more financially capable population – consumers, the Government, advisory services and the financial services industry.
17. A society of more confident and financially savvy consumers will be able to take better control of their money – by planning ahead, getting general or specific advice when they need it, buying products that meets their needs and being equipped to pay back their debts.
18. That’s why I welcome this Student Investor Challenge – a great chance to spark the interest of students in the world of financial markets.
19. From a staggering 30,000 students who’ve taken part in the competition, eight teams have made it through to this National Final. Let me congratulate all of the teams in general, and welcome your future success.
20. But let me also recognise the very real achievement – and the clear potential – of the eight teams who’ve battled this far.
21. I wish you all the best of luck with your presentations, and am very interested to hear what you have to say.
22. Thank you.