Business Education: Key for Achieving Financial Inclusion in Palestine

Financial education is the process of building knowledge, skills and attitudes to become financially literate. It is meant to educate people on good money management practices with respect to earning, spending, saving, borrowing, and investing. Financial education is meant to enable people to shift from reactive to proactive decision-making and work towards fulfilling their financial goals. By broadening people’s understanding of financial options and principles, financial education builds skills to use financial products and services, and promotes attitudes and behaviors that support more effective use of scarce financial resources. Financial education builds skills to use financial products and services, and promotes attitudes and behaviors that support more effective use of scarce financial resources and financial inclusion. The results of this work show that low levels of financial inclusion are associated with lower levels of financial literacy. Recent research permitted to identify various ways in which policy makers are developing financial education policies for financial inclusion.

principles on innovative financial inclusion (http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2010/to-principles.html), financial consumer protection (http://www.oecd.org/regreform/liberalisationandcompetition interventioninregulatedsectors/48892010.pdf) and national strategies for financial education (http://www.oecd.org/finance/financialeducation/OECD_INFE_High_Level_PrinciplesNational_Strate gies_Financial_Education_APEC.pdf) which have been endorsed by G20 leaders since 2010 also recognize that the integration of these three elements is essential to reinforce the financial system and enhance the financial wellbeing of individuals.
Financial exclusion is a global phenomenon; estimates indicate that 2.3 billion working-age adults do not have an account at a formal financial institution (http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/ fi2020/mapping-the-invisible-market). It is also high on the policy agenda, with a wide range of supply-side initiatives designed to improve access, and increasing recognition of the importance of tackling demand-side barriers to financial inclusion. In particular, there has been significant appreciation of the role of financial education in improving levels of financial inclusion around the world, as highlighted by three sets of principles, endorsed by G20 leaders: The G20 Principles on Innovative Financial Inclusion; the G20 High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection and the OECD/INFE High-level Principles on National Strategies for Financial Education. Each set of principles identifies the need for a combined policy response through an integrated framework of financial inclusion, financial education and consumer protection. This same triad is also apparent in the Maya declaration (2011), endorsed by regulatory bodies in developing and emerging countries, which includes the commitment to recognize "consumer protection and empowerment as key pillars of financial inclusion efforts to ensure that all people are included in their country's financial sector" (http://www.afi-global.org/gpf/maya-declaration).

Research Methodology
This study is based on secondary data that was mainly collected from Report of

Research Questions
From the above problem statement and in consideration of core objectives of study the following research questions have been formulated: Q1. What is the reality of financial inclusion in the Palestinian banking sector?
Q2. Financial inclusion and financial education are closely linked concepts?
Q3. What should be the objectives of the financial education programs?

Role of Education in Financial Inclusion
Financial education is hence an important component for promoting financial inclusion, consumer protection and ultimately financial stability. Financial inclusion and financial education need to go hand in hand to enable the common man to understand the need and benefits of the products and services offered by formal financial institutions. These include the following: ability to access affordable credit, no difficulty in obtaining a bank account, reduced amount of financially risk through not having home insurance, ability to budget and manage money or plan for the unexpected and ability to make the most out of their money. Based on a review of approaches taken to deliver financial education for financial inclusion, this report highlights challenges faced and solutions found, and discusses the main lessons learnt and potential way forward.      The above Table highlights

RQ2. Financial inclusion and financial education are closely linked concepts?
Financial education is an important tool to help consumers both accept and use the financial products to which they increasingly have access. Because it can facilitate effective product use, financial education is critical to financial inclusion. It can help clients both to develop the skills to compare and select the best products for their needs and empower them to exercise their rights and responsibilities in the consumer protection equation.
Properly designed, financial education is tailored to the client's specific context, helping them to understand how financial instruments, formal or informal, can address their daily financial concerns, from the vagaries of daily cash flow to risk management. Its power lies in its potential to be relevant to anyone and everyone, from the person who contemplates moving savings from under the mattress to a community savings group, to the saver who tries to compare account choices offered by competing banks. It spans the informal and formal financial sectors, supporting clients' access to, and more importantly, use of, diverse financial services.
Financial education is key to promoting financial inclusion which is a step towards customer protection as it ensures linkage with mainstream financial institutions so that the hapless borrower is not at the mercy of the informal service providers who charge notoriously high rates of interest.

Inclusion
Is meant to motivate the learner to understand the advantages of transactions with mainstream financial institutions and adopt available formal financial services.

Education
Is thus the process of bringing people from the margin to the mainstream, linking them to mainstream financial institutions so that they become customers of banks and are able to access the full range of servicessavings, deposits, loans, which the banks offer.

RQ3. What should be the objectives of the Financial Education Programs?
Financial inclusion implies an alignment of supply and demand, where financially literate consumers have opportunities to apply their knowledge in a marketplace of appropriate product options. Given the criticality of financial inclusion especially in our economy there is need for concerted effort towards encouraging financial education programs. These programs should have three broad objectives that correspond to overlapping, inter-related interests of these three stakeholders.

Personal Financial Empowerment and Improved Welfare
This should target the consumer, the potential client who needs to know when and how to use appropriate financial services to save, borrow, invest and mitigate risk. Financial literacy varies significantly among the poor, especially in relation to a financial landscape that is rapidly changing.
With increased access to more service providers and more products, people confront options they don't always understand. When their existing knowledge and competencies are not applicable to an ever-changing financial landscape, people are limited in their ability to act.

Product Uptake or Improved/Increased Use
New accounts and increased account activity are obvious motivations for financial institutions to sponsor financial education. Taken in isolation, these goals admittedly blur the line between education and marketing. Yet, financial institutions have other reasons to support financial education such as meeting their social responsibilities and building client loyalty with popular services. Institutional efforts range from incorporating educational content into marketing materials to adding financial education delivery to the responsibilities of front-line staff.

Consumer Protection and Awareness
Consumer protection is a cornerstone of financial inclusion, levelling the playing field between suppliers and consumers of financial services. While both have their respective roles and responsibilities, government is the ultimate third-party protector, especially in the absence of effective consumer advocacy organizations. Governments can embrace financial education in the form of public campaigns to broadcast key messages about consumer rights.

RQ4. National Financial inclusion Strategy in Palestine 2018-2025 and its Action Plan?
The vision of the NFIS is to achieve a developed financial sector that fully meets the financial needs of all segments of the Palestinian society to improve their welfare. For the purpose of the NFIS, financial inclusion is defined as Enhancing access to, and use of, financial products and services by all segments of the society via formal channels, while meeting their needs in a timely and affordable manner, protecting their rights and promoting their financial knowledge to enable them to make well-informed financial decisions.

Strategic Goal Sub-goal Action Plan
Strategic Goal 1: Increase the level of financial capability in targeted segments of the population: ►Develop awareness programs that target low-income people, poor and people with special needs.
►Develop financial capability building programs for SMEs and entrepreneurs.
►Design demand-oriented programs for building the financial management and marketing capabilities of SMEs owners.

Sub-goal 1.4
Improve people's trust in the financial service providers and in formal financial services in both banking and non-banking sectors.
►Develop and implement programs to increase the awareness and knowledge of citizens with Islamic financial business and its nature.
►Review and develop the legal environment for regulatory authorities to include explicitly the role of these authorities in promoting financial inclusion.

Sub-goal 1.5
Build the financial capability among the economic media. ►To make selected insurance products compulsory such as medical malpractice insurance, civil liability insurance and fire insurance.

Sub-goal 2.2
Increase access to and usage of financial services by targeted segments of the society.
►Introduce financial programs and services that target women ►Introduce financial programs and services that meet the needs of youth.
►Introduce financial programs and services that target marginalized groups  ►Create the enabling legal environment to establish a complaint management system within PCMA to deal with insurance complaints.

Sub-goal3.2
Improvement of the capabilities of financial consumer protection associations.

Sub-goal 3.3
Promote transparency and disclosure of financial consumers' rights and obligations.
►Simplify the presentation of data and information, increase to access to data and information by the public, particularly those related to fees, commissions and other charges.
►Take actions to improve the quality of service associated with using insurance services particularly in the compensation field.

Sub-goal3.4
Strengthen complain management systems for financial consumers and increase awareness about these systems among people.
►Put in place an effective complaint management system within financial service providers and regulators.

Sub-goal 3.5
Promote the knowledge rights and obligations associated with use of financial services among the unserved and underserved people.

Conclusion
In These range from teaching and training programs to online.
1.3 Cooperate with a wide range of stakeholders: Public authorities, the private sector and civil society can all play their part when addressing knowledge deficits among citizens about the broad range of financial products and services, and when funding financial education programs.
1.4 Start educating at a young age: Financial literacy is a core life skill that must be nurtured as early as possible through school curricula to encourage responsible financial behavior and financial inclusion.
1.5 Embrace innovation: Technology-based tools can contribute to raising financial literacy levels and help overcome some barriers to financial inclusion. GFIA member jurisdictions are increasingly making use of digital tools to reach and engage the public on financial education.
2. Action plan that should implement and promote financial education in Palestine: