It is a priority of its strategy for BSE, a key player in the domestic money and capital market, to have an active role in improving the population’s financial knowledge. With this in mind, BSE has concluded a cooperation agreement with the Money Compass Foundation for these two organisations to build closer cooperation in the future through activities aimed at developing the financial culture and investor awareness of the secondary-school population. Their common goals also include expanding knowledge of the stock exchange, which is why an ambitious stock exchange game for young people is planned for launch during the Pénz7 (MoneyWeek) event next spring.

‘In collaboration with the Money Compass Foundation, the Budapest Stock Exchange seeks to make understanding of savings, investment and the stock exchange more accessible to 14-18-year-olds and ensure that it becomes part of their basic knowledge. We think that the foundations should be laid as early as possible, since solid financial knowledge acquired at a young age provides a robust background for making the right financial decisions later on’, Richárd Végh, CEO of the Budapest Stock Exchange, said about the cooperation.

‘Since its inception, the Money Compass Foundation has launched numerous programmes to improve the financial knowledge and awareness of the general public. We aim to ensure that individuals and families are well-informed and exercise care in dealing with financial situations they face during their lives. We are convinced that it is easiest to learn financial self-sufficiency and individual responsibility at a young age. This is one of the reasons why we regard the cooperation with BSE important and consider primary and secondary-school pupils our priority target groups’, said Zsuzsanna Merényi, Director for Education of the Money Compass Foundation.

The cooperation agreement promotes the achievement of the objectives set for the development of the capital market. Indeed, educating the public about the stock exchange is key to the growth of the capital market, a cause to which both the owner of the BSE (the Central Bank of Hungary) and the Hungarian Government expressed their commitment. On the basis of its strategy adopted in line with these objectives early in the year, BSE relaunched its series of free courses aimed at retail investors, BSE Academy, in September and has now concluded a cooperation agreement with the Foundation.

Money Compass Foundation

The Foundation was established in 2008 by the Central Bank of Hungary, the Student Loan Centre and the Hungarian Banking Association to develop and implement programmes to raise financial awareness in collaboration with authorities, civil society organisations and market participants. In 2014, the Foundation revised its strategic plan, making it a top priority to contribute to the development of financial culture by formulating messages that are relevant in various real-life situations for people in different age groups. To this end, the Money Compass Foundations runs many programmes to help both primary and secondary school pupils and young adults learn how to responsibly manage financials in practice.

Budapesti Értéktőzsde Zrt.

The most important mission of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE), a stock exchange of more than 150 years of history and re-established in 1990, is to provide a transparent and liquid market for Hungarian and foreign securities. Through its activities, it is a priority objective of the BSE, whose majority owner is the Central Bank of Hungary, to provide funding opportunities for domestic businesses and to ensure that the proportion of savings available in the economy that become investments is as high as possible. Beyond offering investment opportunities for retail and institutional investors, the BSE, a key player in the domestic money and capital markets, plays an active role in developing financial culture among the population and in the corporate sector.