The insurance industry has welcomed
ASIC’s national financial literacy strategy, which aims to improve the financial education of Australians by providing a framework for action for stakeholders.
The strategy will consist of key consumer programs including the ICA’s Understandinsurance.com.au, findaninsurer.com.au, and the ICA's efforts to improve affordability in the insurance sector.
The 2014-2017 strategic priorities are:
- To educate the next generation, particularly through the formal education system
- Increase the use of free, impartial information, tools and resources
- Provide quality targeted guidance and support, strengthen co-ordination and effective partnerships, and improve research, measurements and evaluation.
The national framework applies to stakeholders across the government, business, community and education sectors, and is being led and coordinated by ASIC, the Australian Government agency responsible for financial literacy.
Over the last 12 months, ASIC led a comprehensive consultation process with over 200 stakeholders to shape the new strategy and identify the key priorities for action. In addition, the new strategy is informed by relevant consumer and investor research, including insights from behavioural economics and the experiences of other countries around the world.
ICA CEO Rob Whelan said financial literacy was critical for all Australians, and helping broaden consumer understanding of general insurance in particular was a key objective of the Insurance Council.
“ASIC is to be congratulated on such an important initiative and the ICA strongly supports the aim of helping Australians understand their financial risks so that they can protect their assets, and achieve their financial and lifestyle goals,” Whelan said.
“The ICA’s own consumer-focused programs, in particular Understand Insurance, Find an Insurer and affordability and resilience projects, are all aimed at helping Australians understand risk and equip them with the knowledge they need to manage their own exposure and make well-informed insurance decisions.”
