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BNZ drive to improve financial Knowhow

The digital drive to help New Zealand’s youngest and oldest improve their financial capability

Thousands of BNZ volunteers shut up shop and launch a trio of tailor-made, interactive tools

8th August 2018: More than 15,000 kindergarten-aged children are taking part in New Zealand’s biggest ever financial education experience today, as approximately 2,500 BNZ staff leave their day jobs and head out into their local communities for the bank’s annual Closed for Good volunteer day.

This year, BNZ staff are focusing on pre-schools, high-schools, and retirement villages across the country.

BNZ CEO, Angie Mentis, says: “Helping New Zealanders develop a sound understanding of how to look after their finances sets them up to create great outcomes for themselves and their families. That’s why getting our people out into their local communities to improve our collective financial literacy is so important.”

BNZ has worked with education experts to create a specially-designed, interactive storybook, called Penny the Penguin, to help preschoolers understand the difference between needs and wants, and the importance of making good choices.

BNZ staff will also be in secondary schools and with seniors, using their banking smarts to help teenagers and older Kiwis improve their financial know-how, as well as using two other digital tools tailor-made for these age groups.

The My Moni app will help teens navigate their way through financial decisions, like buying their first car. Ms. Mentis says: “We know how crucial it is for young people to start out with a good understanding about money, so we asked some experts how we could help. The Penny the Penguin digital storybook and My Moni app have been specially developed to give children and high-school students a nudge in the right direction.”

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While the Scam Savvy programme helps older New Zealanders spot and avoid scams, an Internet Banking Demo will also help them become more confident using on-line banking.

“The best way to help older people avoid falling victim to scams is to give them more skills and more confidence. Fraudsters can be quite sophisticated and it’s easy to be caught out. Scam Savvy is a safe way for people to learn about common tactics used by scammers, and gain awareness, skills, and experience to help them avoid trouble in future,” says Ms. Mentis.

The day is also being supported by Frances Valintine, who founded The Mind Lab and is one of New Zealand’s foremost digital educators. She explains: “It’s so important to talk to children about money from an early age in a way that grabs their attention and draws them in. Using technology to get financial messages across is a smart way of turning a potentially dry subject into something that is captivating. It’s all about designing tools that are appropriate for each age group, and helping people explore different real-life scenarios to see where their decisions can lead them.”

The range of digital and interactive tools are now freely available online and have been created by BNZ in collaboration with partners including the Auckland Kindergarten Association, the Retirement Villages Association, and numerous high schools across the country.

Ms. Mentis says: “We’ll be helping more than 30,000 people through Closed for Good, but our efforts don’t stop there. This is much more than a one-off and by creating these interactive tools, we hope many more people will also benefit. That’s why we’ve made them freely available for all New Zealanders to use, and we hope they will be shared far and wide.”

For BNZ’s Scam Savvy programme, visit www.getscamsavvy.co.nz. For the internet banking demo, head to www.demo.bnz.co.nz/demo/.

To download the My Moni or Penny the Penguin apps, simply search for these by name in the App Store on Apple or Android-powered phones and tablets.

Closed for Good, now in its ninth year, is the nation’s largest single volunteering day, with the bank closing its offices and branches so its staff can spend time in their communities.

For more information on this year’s Closed for Good and the efforts of BNZ’s volunteers, visit closedforgood.org or follow #bnzclosedforgood on social media.

Background notes on the tools:

o Penny the Penguin is a fun and interactive storybook which is designed to help kindergarten-aged children learn the difference between needs and wants as they make choices to help Penny fix her sailboat.
o My Moni is a mobile app for teenagers aged between 15-18 years old to help them practice making important financial decisions based on a range of familiar scenarios, such as buying their first car, as they prepare for financial independence.
o For seniors, the BNZ Scam Savvy programme has been developed to help them identify, report and avoid a range of scams, taking them through a comprehensive Q&A which reveals commonly used scamming tactics.
o BNZ teams will also be taking seniors through an Internet Banking Demo which enables them to become more confident with the ins and outs of online banking, using virtual cash as they practice transactions.
ENDS

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