ĠEMMA Research: Financial Literacy in Malta: A Study on the Awareness, Knowledge, Skill, Attitude and Behaviour Necessary to Make Sound Financial Decisions and Achieve Individual Financial Well-being – Report, November 2018
The 2010 Strategic Review on the pension system’s adequacy, solidarity, and sustainability emphasised that financial literacy constitutes a fundamental pillar of reform. This review proposed the establishment of a Commission for Retirement and Financial Literacy and the action of one immediate task. Malta at the time had no data on financial literacy other than two surveys carried out, on behalf of the pension reform group, by the National Statistics Office in 2005 and 2010 on people’s perceptions on retirement and the state pension. Thus, the 2010 Strategic Review proposed that Malta should adopt and carry out the OECD/INFE survey on financial literacy. The OECD / INFE survey was then only recently introduced following the OECD’s conclusion that one key contributor to the 2008 financial crash was poor financial literacy.
Following the launch of the National Strategy for Retirement and Financial Capability by the Government in 2017, ĠEMMA (the body established to implement the strategy) as one of its first tasks was the launch of this research. The survey instrument is based on a draft made available to ĠEMMA by OECD with some adaptations. The research was launched in Q1 and Q2 of 2018, with the report placed in the public domain during a public conference held in November 2018.
ĠEMMA places the survey instruments in English and Maltese and the microdata for public use by researchers and parties interested in the financial capability policy area.