Asia-Pacific
In 2002, Visa introduced our financial literacy program My Money Skills in the Asia-Pacific region. This modular online program offers six topics on the most relevant financial information necessary to meet the day-to-day money management needs of people of all ages. The website includes information on budgeting and saving, banking services, wise use of credit and debit cards, managing debt, smart shopping, as well as security and identity theft.
My Money Skills provides more than 200 helpful tips on day-to-day money management in English, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Bahasa Indonesia, Malay, Hindi and Chinese (traditional and simplified).
Our efforts in the Asia-Pacific region do not stop at the My Money Skills website. We work to further our education initiatives with country-specific partnerships:
- In China, we are working with the Ministry of Education on joint seminars targeted at university students in Beijing and Shanghai.
- In Hong Kong, we initiated the Future Leader Program with The Wall Street Journal, which included financial education seminars for university students.
- In Japan, we engaged with the Nippon Association of Consumer Consultants in a three-week financial literacy project with the Ministry of Education and others. The project involves teacher training, textbook distribution and middle and high school curricula at 100 public schools.
- In New Zealand, we work with a community organization called Netsafe to provide education on safe electronic commerce.
- In the Philippines, we partnered with the Junior Financial Executives Institute (JFINEX) to sponsor the Inter-Collegiate Finance Competition’s annual nationwide quiz competition for business and financial students. Several campus education seminars are also under way at universities in Manila, Cebu and Davao.
- In Singapore, Visa joined the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) and the Singapore Management University (SMU) to launch the "Practical Money Skills for Life" financial literacy program. To date, more than 100 educators from more than 25 schools have been trained.
- In Taiwan, we are working with selected universities to include financial education in the general studies curriculum.
- In Australia, we have an alliance with the Australian Government’s Financial Literacy Task Force.
