Symposium: Lifting New Zealanders’ Financial Literacy

Friday, December 1st 2006, 10:56AM

Advance Notice – Pre-register now!

Date: Friday 1 December 2006
Time: 8.45am – 4.40pm
Location: Rutherford House, Wellington
Cost: Free

The Retirement Commission is hosting New Zealand ’s first symposium on financial education and literacy. The symposium is a must for the financial sector, educationalists, academics, policy advisors, officials, regulators, community groups, commentators and economists.

Put Friday 1 December in your diary now, and pre-register.

There is a greater need for financial education today than 20 years ago. New Zealand has adopted a relatively light-handed financial sector regulation. We have a vast and complex array of financial products, a sophisticated financial market, and a voluntary regime for retirement savings. In addition, KiwiSaver is being launched in 2007. Research findings (in schools[1] and of the adult population[2]) suggest that some New Zealanders do not have a sufficient level of financial literacy to operate effectively in today’s financial environment.

The symposium will bring together organisations with an interest in financial education, knowledge and literacy to share what financial education is currently being undertaken in New Zealand, discuss how to lift financial literacy and discover what we can learn from each other and other countries.

The keynote speaker is Ron Sandler, former Chief Executive of Lloyds of London and author of the 2002 independent review of Medium and Long-Term Retail Savings in the UK. Ron has an MA in engineering from Cambridge and a MBA from Stanford University. His early career was with Boston Consulting Group, and as Chief Executive of Martin Bierbaum Group and Exco. He was Chief Executive of Lloyd’s of London from 1995 until 1999 and subsequently Chief Operating Officer of NatWest Group. He is Chairman of Computacentre, Kyte Group and Oxygen, a director of Fortis Group and a member of the Partnership Council of lawyers Herbert Smith.

More information, including the final programme, will be available shortly. In the meantime, pre-register to ensure your place by emailing Paula Brown on paula.brown@retirement.org.nz

[1] Morris, Lyn. An Investigation into the Financial Knowledge Levels of New Zealand Senior Secondary School Students. December 2001.

[2] ANZ Retirement Commission Financial Knowledge Survey, Colmar Brunton, November 2005.

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