Digital Financial Literacy in Portugal - Relevance, Evidence and Provision

Financial digitalisation - further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic - has given greater opportunities to individuals to access financial products and services and plan their financial future. At the same time, digital financial services have introduced new challenges and risk factors such as a greater exposure to online fraud and scams, issues related to personal data protection, and potentially greater exposure to behaviour biases in financial decision-making. Moreover, digitalisation can bring about new challenges and forms of exclusion for groups with limited digital access and skills. These trends have emerged in many countries around the world, including Portugal.

Digital financial literacy is important to empower people to safely use digital financial products and services, and to make them more resilient in their online financial transactions. Ultimately, digital financial literacy is expected to improve individual financial resilience and well-being, while contributing to the inclusive and sustainable development of the economy and society.

Portuguese authorities acknowledged the need to further develop digital financial literacy in Portugal, by collecting further evidence about digital financial literacy levels and about digital financial education provision in the country. This report maps the existing provision of digital financial education in Portugal and presents the results of a quantitative survey assessing individual levels of digital financial literacy. It builds on these findings to identify specific digital financial literacy needs of the population as well as gaps in the existing provision of digital financial education. This report will support the development of an evidence-based digital financial literacy strategy for Portugal, including an implementation roadmap.

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