The Cen­tral Bank and eight part­ner in­sti­tu­tions have re­newed their com­mit­ment to ad­vanc­ing fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy across the coun­try through the sign­ing of a new Mem­o­ran­dum of Co­op­er­a­tion (MOC), aimed at strength­en­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion on fi­nan­cial ed­u­ca­tion ini­tia­tives and im­prov­ing the fi­nan­cial well-be­ing of cit­i­zens.

A re­lease from the Cen­tral Bank said the agree­ment was signed on Sep­tem­ber 28 and for­malis­es the con­tin­ued work of the Na­tion­al Fi­nan­cial Ed­u­ca­tion Com­mit­tee (NFEC), the body es­tab­lished in 2018 to co­or­di­nate ef­forts among key fi­nan­cial sec­tor stake­hold­ers to im­prove fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy, fi­nan­cial ca­pa­bil­i­ty and re­spon­si­ble fi­nan­cial de­ci­sion-mak­ing na­tion­wide.

The new ac­cord re­places the com­mit­tee’s orig­i­nal Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing and would re­main in ef­fect for three years.

Speak­ing at the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny, Gov­er­nor Lar­ry Howai stressed the im­por­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion among in­sti­tu­tions in achiev­ing mean­ing­ful out­comes for the pub­lic.

“The fi­nan­cial well-be­ing of our cit­i­zens is not the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of any one in­sti­tu­tion. It is a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty we share,” Howai said.

He added that clos­er co­op­er­a­tion would al­low mem­bers to pro­vide con­sis­tent and trust­wor­thy fi­nan­cial ed­u­ca­tion, reach more com­mu­ni­ties and en­sure re­sources are used ef­fec­tive­ly.

The MOC es­tab­lish­es the NFEC as the pri­ma­ry mech­a­nism through which par­tic­i­pat­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions will work to­geth­er to en­hance fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy.

Planned ac­tiv­i­ties in­clude pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion cam­paigns, work­shops, sem­i­nars, re­search projects, stake­hold­er en­gage­ment ex­er­cis­es and the de­vel­op­ment of shared ed­u­ca­tion­al re­sources.

The com­mit­tee com­pris­es nine mem­ber en­ti­ties: The Cen­tral Bank of T&T; the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Fi­nan­cial Lit­er­a­cy Sec­re­tari­at; the T&T Se­cu­ri­ties and Ex­change Com­mis­sion; the De­posit In­sur­ance Cor­po­ra­tion; the T&T Stock Ex­change; the Bankers As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T; the As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T In­sur­ance Com­pa­nies; the Co-op­er­a­tive Cred­it Union League of T&T Ltd and the Mu­tu­al Funds As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T.

The Cen­tral Bank would con­tin­ue to serve as sec­re­tari­at to the com­mit­tee through its Na­tion­al Fi­nan­cial Lit­er­a­cy Pro­gramme.

Howai said stronger fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy con­tributes not on­ly to in­di­vid­ual fi­nan­cial health but al­so to eco­nom­ic re­silience and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

“A fi­nan­cial­ly lit­er­ate pop­u­la­tion strength­ens the sta­bil­i­ty and ef­fi­cien­cy of the fi­nan­cial sec­tor and sup­ports na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment,” he said, not­ing that in­formed house­holds are bet­ter equipped to man­age risk, use fi­nan­cial prod­ucts re­spon­si­bly and with­stand eco­nom­ic shocks.