This century has seen an increasing focus on financial literacy, both in New Zealand and internationally.

People around the world need a higher level of financial literacy as the context in which they manage their finances continues to change. The National Strategy for Financial Literacy identifies the following factors as contributing to the increasing need for financial literacy:

• Ageing populations, which threaten the viability of public pay-as-you-go pensions
• Increases in life expectancy, with people’s savings having to support them for longer than ever before
• Increased complexity of financial products
• A proliferation in the number of financial products
• Better educated consumers who want to know more
• A shifting of responsibilities and risks to individuals, such as student loans in New Zealand, or in some countries a shift from defined benefit  pension schemes to defined contribution schemes.
• The erosion of trust in the financial services industry with such issues as the collapse of finance companies (NZ), mortgage foreclosures (USA) and lending crisis (UK)
• Increasing consumer debt and bankruptcies
• The ease and availability of credit products to an increasing proportion of the population
• The KiwiSaver scheme in New Zealand, which has exposed many people to choices around investing and saving for the first time.