than that of the rest of the population. spain is the country with the lowest proportion of students who receive some basic financial education at school. with the aim of promoting financial education in schools, the national securities market commission and the banco de espana signed a collaboration agreement with the ministry of education in september 2009 to implement the financial education plan. since then, high quality educational materials have been provided free of charge under this programme, to enable teachers to include the basic principles of budgeting, means of payment, saving and borrowing in compulsory secondary education. in the 2014 - 2015 academic year an initiative was launched to evaluate the extent to which the financial education plan is achieving its objectives. this was based on the valuable collaboration of the teaching staff, administrators and students of 77 schools in 12 regions, which taught the content of the programme to their students in steps, as established by the banco de espana. the results indicate that the programme has increased students ’ financial knowledge, in particular with regard to the use of means of payment provided by banks, and also – which is no mean feat – their readiness to save. activities relating to adults can the results for young people be extrapolated to the adult population? unfortunately, we know little about the level of financial knowledge of the adult spanish population. it is generally thought that spanish people are not well informed, but much of the evidence for this is based on unrepresentative information. accordingly, as part of a highly ambitious project, the banco de espana and the national securities market commission are preparing one of the most extensive surveys undertaken at international level : the financial competence survey, which forms part of the national statistical plan. this study, which we expect to be completed by the end of 2017, will include various original aspects to address the special characteristics of the spanish case. first, educational skills are decentralised. given the nature of financial competence, which varies significantly according to the level of education of the individual concerned, the project will use representative samples of the different levels in the various regions. second, the financial knowledge of each individual may not reflect that of the persons who actually take household decisions. for example, in spain, important financial decisions regarding house purchase and mortgage borrowing are taken at different ages than they are in other european countries, as a high proportion of young people live with their parents. as a result, information is sometimes needed on the financial competence of those members of the household who take saving and borrowing decisions affecting the whole household. 4 / 5 apart

from its financial knowledge, we have little evidence regarding the general economic knowledge of the spanish population. given this situation, questions have been included in the financial competence survey that aim to measure, inter - alia, knowledge of certain key concepts, such as inflation and money. in 2018 we will have the results of the survey, which will enable us to analyse on a sound basis the financial knowledge of the adult population in spain and to identify those areas on which the financial education plan needs to focus. future activities will be based on this information. to conclude, i should like to join the chairman of the national securities market commission in expressing my sincere and deep gratitude for the work and effort over the past eight years of all those persons and institutions who have collaborated directly or indirectly on the financial education plan. thank you very much your attention and i hope you will enjoy this event. 5 / 5