The authors note that in South Africa – where their study is based – the formal education system has fallen short of achieving acceptable literacy levels (let alone financial literacy) among marginalised communities. They do also highlight, however, that the low levels of financial literacy in South Africa has been recognised by various community-based organisations, the financial industry, the government and other organisations, many of which have launched financial education projects. The financial sector, for example, has made a strong commitment to improving consumer financial literacy in the 2003 Financial Sector Charter by explicitly committing 0.2% of its annual after-tax operating profits to financial literacy projects.

The paper also notes that it is not only low income communities who demonstrate low levels of financial literacy in South Africa. However, lower income households and pensioners remain the most vulnerable to poor planning and exploitative schemes, as it is often more difficult for them to recover from financial shocks.

The specific objectives of this study were:

1. Provision of a comprehensive listing and analysis of current financial literacy programmes in South Africa
2. Development of a discussion document on implementation of relevant Financial Sector Charter Commitments

The report is divided as follows:

• Section 1: Introduction and Methodology
• Section 2: Overview of Consumer Financial Literacy
• Section 3: Global Best Practices
• Section 4: Financial Education Programmes in South Africa
• Section 5: Key Findings
• Section 6: Recommendations
• Section 7: The Financial Sector Charter