Kiwi Financial Startup Wins NZ First

Kiwi Financial Startup Wins NZ First

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 4th of May 2017

Banqer, the financial education platform for schools, has won a New Zealand first in Berlin overnight.

The startup was awarded the Child Youth Finance International ‘Economic Citizenship Education’ Award at the Global Inclusion Awards ceremony. Banqer is the first New Zealand company to ever be recognised by the Global Inclusion Awards.

Banqer was the only finalist from New Zealand, and represented Australasia at the awards alongside the Commonwealth Bank.

CEO Kendall Flutey was “more than ecstatic” to reach the finalist stage given the international scope of the awards.

Child Youth Finance International (CYFI) is a global system change organisation working with partners in 132 countries.

CYFI has taken on the challenge of ensuring that everyone works together to reshape financial systems in order to economically and socially empower children and youth worldwide.

The 2017 CYFI Global Inclusion Awards were supported by the German Presidency of the G20 and held alongside the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion Forum in Berlin.

The awards seek to recognise and honour those that achieve greatness and demonstrate innovation in financial, social and livelihoods education, financial inclusion, and entrepreneurial support for children and youth at the national, regional and international level.

The Economic Citizenship Education Award which Banqer won acknowledges the accomplishments of organisations who have effectively implemented outstanding financial, social and livelihoods education programs in the field.

“I’m somewhat still in disbelief that we won," Flutey said.

"I wasn’t able to be at the event personally, so must have refreshed Twitter at least ten times when the news came through. It’s an amazing achievement for the team, to stand on an international stage and be recognised like this.”

Winning the Economic Citizenship Award builds on an already impressive year for the New Zealand based social enterprise. It comes off the back of their successful launch in Australia this March which has seen the platform being used by more than 1,700 students in the new market already.

Flutey says she’s been encouraged by involvement in the awards.

“To see so many countries and organisations contributing to this social cause is reassuring," she said.

"That said, we still see a lot of work to be done in delivering good, practical financial literacy education on a global scale. Banqer is able to address this by removing two major barriers that students have when learning how to manage their own personal finances; the money to do so in the first place, and the risk of losing it if you make a mistake.”

ENDS

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