12 Neglinnaya Street, Moscow, 107016 Russia 8 800 300-30-00 www.cbr.ru News Bank of Russia holds a Week of Financial Literacy in the Crimea 17 November 2015 News The Bank of Russia held a Week of Financial Literacy in the Crimea attended by over 4,000 people, who had got the opportunity to address questions to Bank of Russia representatives and experts invited. Thirty-nine experts from the Bank of Russia, Association of Russian Banks, Association of Regional Banks of Russia, National Payments Council, and Deposit Insurance Agency delivered lectures in Simferopol, Sevastopol, Yalta, Kerch, Feodosia, Koktebel, Yevpatoria, Alushta, Saki district, Gurzuf, Shchelkino, Lenino, and other settlements of the Crimea. Trainings staged at 77 grounds were attended by schoolchildren, students, employees of enterprises and organisations, and also pensioners, for whom such trainings were organised for the first time. The Bank of Russia has been holding weeks of financial literacy in the Crimea Federal District starting 2014. The primary goal of lectures, lessons, meetings, and expert consultations is to provide population of the new Russian region with the required knowledge of the financial system of the Russian Federation and respective legislation, help determine demands and preferences to make rational financial decisions. This time the topical issues were specifics of Russian consumer loan agreement, main types of compulsory insurance, foreign exchange control, and financial monitoring. Bank of Russia lecturers prepared a special game for middle and senior pupils ‘Draw up Personal Financial Plan’ and also offered them to imagine themselves as a bank or an insurance company and tell their classmates about their activities. The winners of the games and contests were awarded with souvenirs. Students showed to the guests a good command of basic skills of solving personal financial tasks. They were mostly interested in security of money remittances and online payments, and also when Russian banks would be in great number in the Crimea to make it possible to choose the way to receive scholarships or wages. Stories about the history of the ruble as a monetary unit and the establishment and development of the Russian State Bank aroused a live interest. The elderly audience was concerned about the issue of returning savings deposited with Ukrainian banks, loan settlements with those banks, and mortgage lending accessibility. Certain meetings and consultations were attended by entrepreneurs who expressed their concern about the accessibility of qualified loans. At the same time, microfinance organisations are very active in the peninsula and Bank of Russia representatives explained to the audience the peculiarities of microlending, possible risks and main signs of financial pyramids. Many residents of the Crimea, who attended the lectures, had difficulties in understanding of the deposit insurance system operation, other were interested in how to cash funds outside of the Crimea. A detailed story on how to determine banknote authenticity and solvency was also of a particular interest. The Crimean pensioners, who took part in the Week of Financial Literacy for the first time, asked questions about social support measures, payment indexation, and calculation of benefits for working and non-working pensioners. Experts, who had participated in previous weeks of financial literacy in the peninsula, noted a general improvement of knowledge of the Russian financial system among the population and understanding of the need of responsible financial behaviour. Apart from lectures and consultations, Bank of Russia specialists offered to the Crimean population booklets on compulsory motor third party liability insurance, microfinance organisation activities, consumer lending fundamentals, and many other issues, which were distributed among the audiences and forwarded to libraries of schools and higher educational establishments. The lecture by Georgy Luntovskiy, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia, on modern cash circulation in Russia held at the Sevastopol branch of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics concluded the Week of Financial Literacy. Bank of Russia Press Service.