First FinLit Forum Conference on Financial Literacy Held in Kyiv

Today, the National Bank of Ukraine hosted the first FinLit Forum conference on financial literacy.
The one-day conference, organized by the National Bank of Ukraine, the Deposit Guarantee Fund, and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine with the support of USAID’s Investment for Business Resilience Activity, was held as part of the Global Money Week.
Almost 2,500 representatives of international organizations, government agencies, financial market participants, experts, and educators discussed the development of financial literacy in school education, which has become particularly important today.
In 2025–2026, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine will introduce a compulsory subject Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy into the school curriculum for grades 8 and 9.
The NBU has prepared a special model curriculum for this subject, which has already been approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
"I am grateful to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for promoting financial education among children and youth.
This is an extremely important and significant step toward the development of a financially healthy society.
Soon, about 800,000 students across Ukraine will learn to make informed financial decisions, manage money rationally, save, effectively manage their debts, avoid fraud, set financial goals, and work to achieve them.
For this purpose, the NBU has already developed a curriculum, and we are also working on textbooks, training teachers, creating the Financial Knowledge Center Talan for educators, developing educational materials, holding many educational events for children, and are ready to continue to provide the necessary support," said NBU Governor Andriy Pyshnyy in his welcoming speech to the conference participants.
The conference was also attended by Yoshiki Takeuchi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The OECD promotes financial literacy around the world and is the organizer of Global Money Week.
"Teaching financial education in schools requires a comprehensive approach in order to be effective, from collecting evidence to developing textbooks.
In addition to introducing financial literacy in the curriculum, this means providing teachers with the necessary skills, confidence, and resources to teach financial matters, and engaging with and supporting parents to lead conversations about money with their kids," said the OECD Deputy Secretary-General.
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine constantly supports initiatives aimed at improving the financial literacy of children and youth.
"Financial literacy is the knowledge and skills that are essential for living in the modern world.
Until recently, this topic was not given due attention in schools, and teaching was fragmented.
With the launch of the New Ukrainian School reform, the situation has been changing.
Financial literacy is a cross-cutting theme in education from grade 1.
From a young age, children learn to plan purchases, count money, learn that they can save money, that is postpone purchases for the future, and so on – which is done in a playful way.
Each age implies its own goals and teaching approaches.
From grade 8, a targeted financial literacy course will be introduced, which involves mastering more complex topics: interaction with banks, starting a business, securities, and more.
We are grateful to the National Bank of Ukraine for its interest in children"s education.
I am confident that thanks to the cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the NBU, financial literacy training will become more effective and practice-oriented," said Ihor Khvorostianyi, Director of the School Education Directorate of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
The Deposit Guarantee Fund is also actively engaged in promoting financial literacy among the public.
"A high level of financial literacy among financial services users is a guarantee of Ukraine"s financial stability.
Therefore, the DGF, as one of the key elements of the country"s financial security, supports and implements projects that promote the formation of sustainable financial habits among Ukrainians and the adoption of sound financial decisions.
These are, in particular, educational projects aimed at educating financially literate young people, as they will shape the country"s financial future.
In particular, the Foundation has created a Financial Competency Framework for different age groups and is implementing the National Financial Literacy 2.0 Project in the regions of Ukraine.
The DGF also constantly cares about protecting individuals" bank deposits by providing a 100% guarantee for the duration of martial law and three months after its lifting.
In addition, depositors of banks that are being removed from the market have expanded access to guaranteed compensation – payments are made remotely through the Deposit Return service in the Diia app," said Svitlana Rekrut, Managing Director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund.
The speeches of the working part of the conference were devoted to:
development of financial literacy in school education in Ukraine, presentations of financial regulators" achievements in the field of financial literacy of children and youth preparation for the introduction of the compulsory subject Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy.
Grades 8 and 9 and the related need for professional development of educators studying successful international experience in implementing financial literacy in schools.
  The FinLit Forum conference was held with the support of USAID, which has been helping to implement financial literacy projects in Ukraine for more than 10 years.
You can watch a recording of the conference on the NBU"s official YouTube channel.