IFEC’s 10th anniversary activities help raise financial resilience for the Hong Kong public

17 October 2022

The Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and has prepared a series of investor and financial education activities in a bid to cultivate good financial management habits among the public to get prepared for different challenges, enhancing their financial resilience.

IFEC Chairman Mr Victor Dawes said, “Global inflation, market volatility and life circumstances can all put your financial resilience to the test. As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the IFEC, we would like to remind all that with sound market knowledge, good money management and planning, we can become better equipped to handle financial shocks.”

Anti-financial scam education board game for all

Different types of scams and frauds are on the rise. According to the Hong Kong Police Force1, the number of cases of fraud and deception grew 42% to 12,326 in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year, with a total amount of HK$2.1 billion involved. To help the public to identify financial scams in order to stay vigilant, IFEC has developed an anti-financial scam board game called “One Day Adventure with Grandparents Chin”.

A pilot run was conducted at local senior centres with an impact measurement exercise conducted by the City University of Hong Kong earlier this year. Results showed that the board game had a positive impact on preventing the participants from falling prey to financial scams. Seniors who participated in the board game showed improved self-efficacy (around 10%), reduced susceptibility to scams (around 18%) and increased awareness of financial scam situations (around 16%). The evaluation has shown that only 19% of the board game participants would give out personal information to a stranger in a hypothetical financial scam call, which is significantly lower when compared to the 44% of the control group that had not participated in the board game.

A simplified digital version of the board game has been developed and is available online (in Chinese only) for public usage.

Online Role Playing Game – interactive way to know more about money management

The newly released online game, “Money-verse” aims to induce youngsters to review their financial management habits by presenting the potential risks of personal finances, such as financial scams, credit card debts and herd investment mentality in a fun and interactive way. The game also features financial management tips for players to learn. Please click here to play the online game.

Teaching primary students money management via Chinese idioms

Financial education should start as early as possible. The IFEC introduced an animation series “The Chin Family Money Management Idioms”, allowing the children to learn money management knowledge in an interesting way. Revolving around the everyday lives of The Chin Family, these animated stories instil basic money knowledge through Chinese idioms, and help children develop good money management habits. Please click here to watch the animation.

Multimedia investor and financial education campaign

A multimedia investor and financial education campaign via TV, outdoor advertising, internet and social media, is kicked off today to help raise awareness among the public, urging them to cultivate good financial management habits to help enhance their financial resilience. Please click here to visit the campaign webpage.

IFEC General Manager Ms Dora Li said, “The IFEC team would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Board, all our stakeholders and the public for embarking on this meaningful journey with us to help enhance investor and financial education in Hong Kong during the past ten years. Building financial resilience is an essential skill in the 21st century. The IFEC will continue to dedicate our efforts to work with stakeholders to provide investor and financial education resources and tools to help improve the financial literacy level in a bid to cultivate good financial management behaviour for the people in Hong Kong. We look forward to continuing this fruitful journey with you all together.”

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1According to the Hong Kong Police Force press release dated 25 July 2022, the number of cases of fraud and deception rose 42% year on year to 12,326 in the first half of 2022, with a total amount of HK$2.1 billion involved. Investment fraud and telephone scam cases made up over HK$700 million and HK$400 million respectively.