Source: Danske Bank
For the seventh year running, Danish schools are taking part in Money Week. Besides financial topics the teaching will – as something new – focus on fraud via ‘mules’.
The initiative is led by Finance Denmark, and we are participating as guest teachers.
During the week more than 700 school classes will get a visit from the banks in Denmark. In Danske Bank we will visit 400 school classes to help with the education in financial topics, including budgets, savings, APR and interest rates.
Fraud via mules
Digital safety is also a theme this year during Money Week, and a new topic is fraud via mules, where criminals are trying to are exploit children and young people for financial crime by tricking them into becoming mules, so they are used for money laundering.
“Unfortunately we are seeing more and more young people being exploited as mules, so it’s important to raise the awareness about what signs to pay attention to, and not for example help strangers on the street transfer money, even though it might seem completely innocent”, says Ketil Clorius, Head of Danske Bank’s Fraud Management unit.
The Danish Association of Teachers of Mathematics has developed material
Finance Denmark has developed the Money Week teaching material in collaboration with the Danish Association of Teachers of Mathematics, and the objective of Money Week is to instil the topic of personal finances among seventh- to ninth-grade pupils in Denmark. Danske Bank has supported Money Week since 2014, where the initiative took place for the first time.
“We really want to support Money Week and help young people create healthy financial habits early, so they don’t make unfortunate decisions, when they enter adult life and have to manage their own finances, says Anne Juel Jørgensen, Head of educational initiatives in Danske Bank targeted at childrens and young people. She also adds, that Danske Bank conduct several other teaching lessons around the year on schools in Denmark.
According to numbers from the Experian RKI register (Danish credit reference agency) approximately 46,500 young people between the age of 18 and 30 are registered as persons with a bad credit score or credit rating. To avoid debt it is important to be able to manage your finances via e.g. a budget.