Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – From the introduction of financial education in schools to the need to channel Italians' liquidity toward productive investments. Senator Dario Damiani, leader of the Budget Committee, in an interview with Adnkronos ahead of World Savings Day, takes stock of the results achieved and the challenges still facing improving Italians' financial literacy.
Also at the center of the discussion was the Savings and Investments Accounts (SIA) proposal, supported by banking, insurance, and financial sector associations, to direct more resources to Italian and European businesses.
Senator Damiani, you sponsored the law that introduced financial education in schools, which came into force in 2024.
Where are we at?
I must say I'm particularly pleased. My proposal, born way back in 2018, has since been implemented in law, with the introduction of financial literacy in schools as part of civic education, starting in primary school. It's therefore not only a source of personal satisfaction, but also a political one, because we've finally achieved an important result for Italy.
Our country still ranks lowest in European and global financial literacy rankings. With this law, schools began working on these issues. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education issued guidelines on civic education and financial literacy, and most schools have already complied. As always, there is still much to be done, not only in schools but also in many other sectors. I would like to emphasize that Italy is a country that relies on small and medium-sized businesses, especially family-run ones. In this area too, it is necessary to introduce notions of financial education, precisely to raise the level of competitiveness and knowledge, including in businesses' relationships with banks, for example. Greater and improved awareness, greater financial education, in my opinion, can also offer significant benefits to our country's development. We are certainly pleased with the law's approval, but we still have a long way to go. We must climb the international rankings.
Regarding the road ahead, one of Italy's major challenges is directing savings toward the country's growth, preventing liquidity from being parked in deposit or current accounts...
Italians are a nation of savers. There's a significant amount of wealth deposited in current accounts; therefore, these resources remain idle and produce nothing. Italians prefer to keep them idle, when these resources could be used, also offering benefits to the savers themselves, who are largely private families. The famous Individual Savings Plans, or PIRs, were introduced in Italy about ten years ago. They collected private savings to invest in small and medium-sized Italian businesses. Over time, PIRs have evolved. What we need to create today are the conditions for private savers to use, over a medium- to long-term horizon—so we're talking at least five or six years—the resources idle in their current accounts, allocating them to investments. We must therefore provide private savers with benefits, including tax breaks, through investment relief. These are opportunities we've already explored and which still exist with PIRs.
ABI, Ania, Assogestioni, Assoreti, and the Italian Private Banking Association have joined forces, presenting a proposal to the Ministry of Economy and Finance to introduce Savings and Investment Accounts in Italy. Is this an alternative?
This is the European dimension of the issue. A response must therefore be found through a European-level evolution of PIRs, using private savings through so-called investment accounts. This is precisely the proposal that has recently emerged from a group of associations that have presented the idea of these investment accounts to Europe, with the aim of using private savings to finance European small and medium-sized enterprises. It could represent a solution, a European-wide expansion of PIRs, because they partly operate according to a similar logic. The proposal has been shared by five important associations with whom we, too, have always engaged at a political level over the years, precisely to find a solution to the problem of how to mobilize these huge resources sitting in current accounts. It therefore also expresses the common sentiment of the banking, insurance, and financial advisory sectors, with the concrete goal of mobilizing private savings. These are savings and investment accounts designed and dedicated to individuals residing in Italy. I believe this could be a good solution and that we can work in this direction, to allocate a A greater share of household savings for productive investments. Naturally, as I said, these must be medium- and long-term investments, capable of offering financing opportunities to both Italian and European companies. This is therefore an important prospect not only for Italy, but also for the European Union. I believe we can concretely work towards this solution.
Financial education also helps avoid scams, or is legislation needed?
The objectives of financial education are many. It's not just about raising one's cultural level, mastering the language of finance, or gaining greater awareness, but also developing the ability to recognize scams. Think of telephone or email scams. There are many of them, they're constantly being perpetrated, and we discover new ones every day in Italy. It's important to have the tools to identify potentially dangerous situations. When someone presents themselves, in various forms, and offers us an investment promising very high returns, it's clear we must be particularly careful, because we could be dealing with a scam. Today, even investment returns have certain limits. However, those unfamiliar with the financial world and unfamiliar with financial regulations are unlikely to recognize an attempted scam. This is why I believe that financial education and awareness are knowledge that must be disseminated to all segments of the population today. We've focused primarily on young people and children, introducing financial education into school teaching, starting in primary school. But I would truly extend this training to all segments of our country: housewives, professionals, to anyone. Having a knowledge of financial concepts also helps avoid scams, and not only that.”
How much is the current international economic climate, and inflation in particular, impacting households' ability to invest? In a time of great uncertainty, does maintaining liquidity become almost a forced choice for those worried about the future?
Italy, in these four years of government, has made giant strides economically. It's clear that all of this is now at risk of being partially undermined by a particularly difficult international economic situation. We have over seventy wars in the world, some of which involve major world powers. All of this has challenged the international economic environment and the work done at the European level to strengthen our country's prestige. However, I want to point out that in recent months, major rating agencies have improved their assessments of Italy. This means that significant steps forward have been made and that our country has seen significant progress.
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