“Asset managers should fund financial education via an independent third party such as a foundation to avoid any perception of conflicts of interests” stated Guillaume Prache, Managing Director at BETTER FINANCE, at the EFAMA Conference on financial education on March 24.
Following the conference an article in the Financial Times addressed the issue by asking whether vendors of financial products should be allowed to provide education about the very products they sell.
Yes, financial education should be a priority but asset managers should refrain from using this initiative as a window of opportunity to secure future costumers.
As Mick McAteer put it: “If financial institutions want to fund financial education, that is all well and good, as long as they have no part in designing it or delivering it”. The founder and director of The Financial Inclusion Centre believes that “if they are serious about doing it for public policy reasons, not just as a Trojan horse marketing stunt, let them fund financial education charities”.
Please read the Financial Times article here.