Investing in Knowledge How Financial Literacy Can Drive More Equitable Societies

Good afternoon everyone. It is truly my pleasure to be moderating today today's panel on a topic that remains to face significant challenges around the world today and honestly a topic that has been a big part of my personal uh journey and that is uh financial literacy. The subject goes far beyond numbers or financial tools. It touches our daily decisions, our sense of security and ultimately the opportunities available to each of us. While the pursuit of financial lit literacy is a universal need, the truth is that we continue to see uh challenges persist today.

To explore this important topic, I'm joined by an exceptional group of leaders who have been at the forefront of advancing financial literacy. Together, we'll not only discuss what it takes to build financial capability, but also why investing in these skills is essential to creating more equitable and inclusive societies. Thank you my dear panelists for being here. I look forward to our rich conversation. So without further ado, let's get started.

Shireen, I'd like to start with you. Too often we see financial literacy focus on increasing our understandings of the tools of finance whether that is management of our debts manage when and where to invest. Uh but the reality is that not too often do we see it focusing on the deeper underlying drivers of our money behaviors. Uh Belinka your company approaches personal finance management through game simulations. Could you share with our audience today what motivated you to make financial literacy an engaging and entertaining learning experience and to what extent does tapping into our emotional brain and our psychological barriers uh change the way we approach saving and investing?

So I want to take you back 25 years ago. Uh I was the first Saudi woman to work in corporate banking. And for me to get into corporate banking, I needed to pass the interview and I didn't have finance background. So I spent three months trying to understand financial analysis and it was the most excruciating, boring, dry thing I've ever done. But then I passed, thank God, and I got into uh into banking.

And then I fell in love with finance because I started becoming like Sherlock Holmes, you know, the numbers started speaking to me and I thought to myself, there must be a better way. Like if you see any other sector, they transformed in the last 100 years except for education, not as much. And especially in finance, like in science, you can actually make an experiment and you can learn, but then in finance, you're just trying to kind of make sense of what you're seeing. Uh fast forward 12 years later I got into training and fast forward I I got into Belinka and in Belinka by the way we started with corporate finance. We are gamifying gamifying corporate finance.

So we get people who are non- finance who are making decisions and these decisions affect the bottom line but they have no clue what the facts and figures are behind their decisions. So when we when they come I I discovered that people have shame around finance. So when they come into the classroom some people shiver there was one engineer a guy who was very senior he was actually shivering because he didn't want to lose face and we intentionally for the first one and a half hours of our workshop we don't say a word that a 10year-old cannot understand because we want to dissipate that fear but then we layer fun into it we layer engagement we use Montasauri if I say Montasauri style everyone of you will Think about kids, right? We have equal rights as adults to have fun, you know, and when you're when you're having fun, your brain opens up, blooms like a flower, and absorbs like a sponge. So, emotional the emotional side of of education is super important.

Then you can layer in the education. And for personal finance, it's actually an extension that after a few years of corporate finance, uh people started asking us about personal finance and then we started doing it and I didn't know that it would be 75% of the people that we're training are we're training on personal finance. That's that's very interesting and I can humbly say that I'm actually one of those people who used to shiver when thinking about finance or when checking her account and really I was sharing with you offstage that it really was a personal fi learning journey for me but I'm curious um from our audience here by a show of hands how many of you had to go through this learning experience from a changing their emotional reaction to finance if I'll raise my first one hand here

I would say like 25%

we have to change that nor so you and me

we'll we'll be talking we'll be talking off stage

um but from here on I'll actually like to take it to Rasha uh ultimately financial literacy from what Chaden has been sharing with us it can really change the course of national economies through better informed business decisions when we understand where are we investing what is our return on investments um and I'd like to explore that a little bit you are the managing director at a managing director at gate capital and a non-executive director as well as Poland Poland Capital. So your career spans many years working at the private sector. Based on your experience, how important is financial literacy in promoting inclusive business investments? So um thanks for having me and thanks for the um important topic uh that we're discussing here today. Um look, financial literacy is something really genuinely very dear to my heart because I was um I'm a mathematician.

Um I was always very good at maths at school and I wanted to study maths at university and I was fought by everyone whether it's friends or family or the school as to why why do I want to do this and what am I going to do with this in life it's it's useless and um I eventually luckily didn't listen to anyone and I did study just pure maths not even applied not statistic it's what I love and what I um what I was good at And um finishing that I ended up doing my MBA in finance and then ended up on trading floors in the city in London. And later on in my career it and it took me a while that I realized there aren't many women around in this business because you know when you're 21 22 you don't you're just doing your job you're doing your career you're not I didn't it it didn't even cross my mind and uh further on I was um involved a lot more in the educational part of um of uh of life. I I sit actually on the board of Imperial College in London. It's where I did my MBA. And and part of a lot of what I'm trying to hoping to change is the push at the educational level for girls into science.

um where they still in the educational system today even if the girls are good at science and good at maths and good at physics the educational system is steering them towards humanities and arts even if it's not where their skills are they we we still see that today in the younger educational system and that's um I think it's a it's a big problem uh because even if someone and I and And I instill that in my girls and I tell them even if you want to be whatever you want to be, I don't know, a a jewelry designer, okay? Anything. And you want to set up your own business, you need to have some financial literacy. You need to understand your incomings, your outgoings, the tax system, your own taxes, you need to understand how to how to make a financial a business financially viable because you you look at a lot of the um new businesses today. many of them fail on financial issues,

right?

And and that's because the financial literacy level from an from a young age is still lacking in in society in general everywhere in the world. And it's

it's an issue that we tackle, but I think we really got a long way to go on it still. I'm glad that you mentioned the topic of starting your business and being able to be the person who at the same time has the idea but manages the finances of a startup. Um I'm wondering how many of our audience members here today are entrepreneurs or have their own businesses. Wow, that's a big number. All right, so then let's move to the nexus of entrepreneurialism and financial literacy.

And with that, there's no better person to do that than Wala. Uh wafa, you're the founder of Playbook. And for those of you who don't know, Playbook is an ETH company that accelerates women's careers. They have a full library of workshops online. Um, so as an entrepreneur yourself, uh, of an ETH platform, you are inherently a strong advocate for the power of education.

Uh, based on your on your experience working with numerous founders, what are the top three insights that you can share with our many entrepreneurs here today on how your financial literacy boot camps and workshops have empowered entrepreneurs to launch their startups? And as Sasha was saying, manage your own finances.

So, thank you so much, Nor. I'm so excited to be here. Hello, everybody. Um, I'm so excited about this topic. Um, you mentioned Playbook.

We are a private network with over 11,000 members. 80% of our investors are women. Our check signers are women, which is unheard of when you look at the backbone of our business. These are women who are members and they've become investors. Some of them are here today.

And I'm really grateful for their support because we wouldn't be where we are if it wasn't for this incredible space. And I think that the biggest insights we've seen is we run educational content in terms of boot camps, programs, master classes, but our boot camps have seen the highest rates of engagement. And I believe it's one because women are held accountable. There's so much stuff online, but to pay and show up to something where you can where you're really forced to like listen to the instructor and ask questions and engage and get feedback or understand even um benchmarking norms. How much should you be asking in terms of fundraising?

How much should you be giving up in terms of equity? How to read your cap table? And I feel that the biggest insights we've seen is women negotiate better. They actually give up less and they ask for more. They tend to undervalue themselves.

um they tend to shift their whole strategy about money. Instead of asking for money, they're pitching a business opportunity once they understand their financials and how to read their balance sheets and just build a healthier, more exciting relationship with money. I believe that a lot of our founders post running our boot camps are able to build their businesses more sustainably and less on their instinct and gut, which maybe is how they start the business, but eventually you have to kind of move into data and understanding those features. And lastly, they speak investor. So eight, you know, 2% of venture capital goes to women.

Um, so it's basically a boys club. They're most of the venture capital space and the investment space is men investing in other men. And I think with women really speaking the language of investment and knowing how to handle those meetings and negotiate is is very critical. So these are just some of the outcomes and insights out of running these boot camps or these financial financial literacy programs.

Thank you, Waffle. uh from one entrepreneur will move to another entrepreneur also with a different financial with a non-financial background. Paula, you have an engineering background yet you're a successful entrepreneur yourself having founded an investment firms that delivers value to investments in emerging markets. From your experience, can you talk about the role financial literacy has played in creating opportunities for investors to succeed specifically in these emerging markets and and can you share with our audience how so? So, first of all, thank you for for having me.

It's uh it's a privilege to be here, especially on a on a panel with so many uh amazing women. Um I think look, when I started as an engineer, I never imagined that I would be in finance. Uh I like you was good in math. I was good in science and engineering was sort of where where I ended up. But I was recruited uh by the financial firms in Wall Street uh where they looked for a lot of the engineers.

um to go into the world of finance, not knowing the finance language really at all. And I thought, okay, I'm not even sure what I'm doing here, but why not? Why why not try it? I was ambitious. I was curious.

And so I ended up having good supporting mentors. Ended up going to business school and learned a lot about a lot more about finance as I as I went along. And I realized that uh in emerging markets, but I would say as a general commentary uh financial literacy transcends age and it transcends uh sort of educational levels. And what I mean by that is I'll give you an anecdote uh as an example. My mother uh grew up in Latin America.

So so did I. And uh as a Latin woman, she went into very difficult field which was nuclear physics. um and one of the most intelligent women I know. However, when it comes down to any kind of financial decision, she would take the whole stack of financial statements, bank statements. You here, you take this.

This is too complicated. And I thought, mom, nuclear physics is complicated. This stuff is not that complicated. But it was a language that she did not know or understood. Right?

So financial literacy I think it applies to in general women who I think tend to imagine this language to be something so foreign to them and so difficult. So when we talk about having that language be taught I think in emerging markets you see different levels of of of understanding of that but there's women who are heads of households just like in many other places of the world. There is womens who are tied to a marriage where they don't feel they can have an independence because they're not financially independent. They don't understand how they would even go about managing money. And so that to me is a liberating uh uh skill to have because it allows you to make your own decisions.

It allows you to define your destiny in many ways. And that sort of financial literacy component in any kind of society and especially for women, it's it's an incredible powerful thing to have. And it needs to start when they're young. It needs to start in in in high school, I believe, to people become familiar what that means and then reinforced in college and then supported when they actually have careers. And so when when there's financial literacy in some of these markets, they will know what uh what interest rates mean, what risks means, what returns means.

When they get credit cards, when they open a bank account, you just open a bank account, you're getting zero interest. Is that really what you should be doing with your money? Should we be putting it somewhere else? So understanding the basic concept of financial literacy as they make decisions which then empowers them to start a business uh to uh uh make investments decisions in in other businesses to sponsor other businesses and it all becomes a part of a ecosystem that starts to support the economies for the economies to grow. So to me it's sort of an essential component, one of the pillars that there needs to be there to support uh not just emerging markets, I would just say markets in general.

Uh you mentioned education and we'll certainly be talking more uh about how we can embed these programs into the into high schools as you said, but um Shireen, let's go back a little bit to how um education can play a role in differentiating between long-term investments and short-term investments. Um, there are actually several studies that show that women tend to invest more in in uh patient investments. Uh, I I've heard you mentioned that buying goals could be a way of uh uh being focused on the long-term returns on investments. They tend to be less reactive to market volatilities too. Um, how can financial literacy in your opinion play a role in enabling not just women but investors really create a balance strategic balance between having short-term investments and then long-term investment.

So, first you need to take the course. Uh, the let's talk about women and how they look at risk and investment. Women calibrate risk differently. They look at things differently. And there was actually a study um there was an article by the Wall Street Journal that uh uh look at looked at investor female investors and how they uh overperformed uh their male counterpart by 6%.

So that means that women are as good or even if not better.

I'm not sorry. Uh they're at least as good. Okay. And uh by the way in the audience there is the most amazing investment investor female investor that I've ever known in my life and I'm very picky. Uh so if you want investment advice please um women look at investments differently and they like even we see it with um women in taking care of kids.

You know a woman can take care of a kid uh differently than a man. But what is seeing what I see here and I know this region. I don't know the uh I don't know Europe or u uh or America. I know Saudi and I know this region. Unfortunately, women have been uh shunned from talking about business and finance.

Uh you see a man in the Gulf in Saudi or here they will take their son a 10year-old to the majus you know. So the 10-year-old is kind of in tuned with business talks, negotiations, people making money, etc. And women are shunned from that. But now women are actually closing the gap. So if we want to look at women and how they make decisions and and uh and investment decisions, first let's level the playing field in terms of education.

So

yeah. So first I see the there's a huge gap between women and men with regards to financial uh awareness, financial education. Then once we have exactly the same then you will see amazing results when you combine both because women and men look at things differently.

Thank you. Um let's move a little bit to technology and financial literacy. Uh, the world of money is evolving rapidly from cryptocurrencies to dig digital economies, uh, the tokenization of assets. Um, in this financial revolution that is intended to really democratize, uh, and be a democratizing force and an equalizing force, how can women make sure that these new systems that are being created in the world of finance uh, ensure that they are represented in the world of finance? Um look we live in a very different world.

Uh uh this generation I think is super lucky. They have amazing access to information and they have a much better ability to learn all the new products that are coming on the market whether we're talking about AI or the new technologies. Remember in our time there you had to you you had to actually um make a conscious effort to seek information and and teach yourself about any new topic that came up in the world. Today it's at their fingertip. So, um I I actually go to the the 20 year olds today to find out which app are they using, how are they learning this, where which one is the best one, and and you'd be very surprised.

They have, you know, they have amazing access. Um and that I think in turn is also changing the way uh technology is being used because it is uh genderneutral. it's it's available for everyone.

Uh and and then you're looking at a at a diverse pool of uh knowledge that's coming onto the market that has a lot less bias than in our generation was very different.

Yeah.

You know that there there is um there is a generational um gender issue uh that that's just part of life. I don't think there's anything right or wrong in it, but as as Shireen was saying, um the the the boys go to the majus in England, they go to the golf course, they go to the pub, the ladies don't have that automatic place where you can exchange information and talk about topics that are evolving in the world. It was actually very much the opposite. We we had a you know, our mother's generation were told to be quiet. we're told to speak up.

So there there is still that um

difference in the upbringing towards where we are today that doesn't exist in in in in the that generation. I I see it in my girls in their 20s very different but again it's the access to information where they can learn as much as everybody else whether you force it or not or whether you introduce them to it or not. uh they are embracing the new technologies of of of AI and everything else. Um and it's giving them enough information for them to be able to uh use their own um intellect as to which direction they feel they can shine in.

And in your opinion, how does gender neutrality stand today in the world? In your opinion, how does gender neutrality stand today within the world of crypto, for example? How

I know sorry I had to go with the difficult one.

That's that's that's a whole different topic by itself I think. But uh um but it feeds into this discussion into what can we do to make sure that it is reached soon that is achieved soon uh gender equality and it feeds into our discussion of what can we do when it comes to financial literacy to make sure that women are represented equally in the field

you know and and I really have to second what Shireen is saying it's a it's a different approach um and I see it on on even the boards I sit on so uh Poland and captive as a board I I sit on and the the diversity you know it's not just about women and men it's a diversity of thought that is so important to bring to any business

because it's a different approach it's a different way of solving um problems and it's a different way of approaching uh business opportunities business challenges etc and that stems from all the criteria we're talking about whether it's education whether it's access to information whether It's how you uh applying technology. It's the upbringing. There's there's a lot that comes into it and that in itself shapes the thought uh leadership that you bring onto any business or board that you serve on uh and and the diversity of thought today is is where um companies are trying to access

whether it's gender or a different gender.

I could not agree more. I second every word you said and it really will contribute eventually to the national economies on the broader front. Um staying on the topic of technology and and financial literacy. Wafa back to you. Playbook now features an AI academy.

So you've already incorporated technology into your learning platforms. Um what role do you see atteing financial literacy and making it more inclusive?

So I think that education is the ultimate equalizer. I still can't believe we're not taught financial literacy in school. I don't remember anything from biology, but what I need to know today is how to manage my finances, how to safeguard my children's education. And I want to talk about some of our initiatives and just show how we're leading by example and trying to fill those gaps. One is playbook 2.

0. Today we're an app where you can learn uh get access to investment opportunities. We uh and and also like uh connect and network. But our next kind of stage or playbook 2.0 O is we're creating we're using AI to create curated learning pathways based on every member's financial goals and career goals.

So that's one where we're kind of integrating our AI academy and our AI tools into the app. Two, we're partnering with Belinka which I'm very very proud of. Next year we're hosting a summit in Riyad called the women shaping wealth summit which really is going to you know put finance at the forefront. I'm calling it the FI for women. That's the vision.

But what's very exciting is Shireen has been so instrumental in teaching me about my personal finance that we are partnering with her. And by the way, she only does sessions for corporates. So it's amazing that she's offering this to almost 50 of our attendees and members which will be in Riad next year where she gamifies finance, feminizes finance, and you get access to her amazing book. So she really gets you to explore and understand how you can become a better investor, how you can become a better saver to uh protect and safeguard your future. And then three, we acquired an angel investment network.

So all for for all you founders out there who want to raise um we acquired Woman Spark, which is an 11-year-old angel investment network out of Saudi, which was started by her excellency Dalia. We acquired it last year because Playbook is generating its own um investors and then she had this huge network in Riad and together we have over a 100 active female angels and what we do is we um suggest pipeline and do demo days a femaleled companies to those uh investors. So far we've had 22 investments happen. Average ticket size is about $25,000. So just by bringing down the ticket size and integrating education in the process where women can learn how to invest and you know get excited about it and they have dealow that matches the amount that they can invest in.

they've started that experience. And lastly, we also partnered up with um Katar Science and Technology Park where and get this, they're training 300 women on how to angel invest. And their vision is if we can get women to learn how to angel invest, they will predominantly invest in companies they understand and where they can also add value, which are a lot of them are femaleled companies. So for them, that's the multiplier effect. And also, if anybody's interested in joining that program, they can connect with us um afterwards on the stage.

So, these are just some examples of how we're bringing in education and technology as a as a company to try to change the game and try to add value.

I love it when uh panelists give a big shout out to their fellow panelists and I think I don't know if you'll see this in any other panels across Finance Week. So, I love this. Um but to your point on starting at uh at any level, I want to move back to Paula. Uh Paula, you dedicate a lot of your time to supporting the growth of women's financial literacy and supporting girls really to invest any any amount they'd like throughout your work with girls who invest. Um what have been the greatest insights that you have gathered from your experience supporting the work of this organization that you can share with us today?

So I I met um the founder of Girls Who Invest some time back. Her name is Sema Hingarani. um someone who was been in Wall Street for a long time and uh managed the New York pension fund system handling over 160 billion in AUM and in that role she realized that most of the managers uh that would come meet with her were mainly were mainly men very few women and it begged the question of what's what's happening why why don't we have more women in finance specifically in the asset management role um and to make a a long story short her conclusion was there was a pipeline problem there weren't enough women applying for some of these positions or even aware that maybe these positions existed. So, she created a program called Girls Who Invest that recruits young women at a sophomore year, gives them four weeks of strong academic training followed by six weeks of uh internships in different Wall Street firms that actually sponsor the program. She started with a cohort of 30 girls uh at Wharton and now 10 years later, there's 4,000 alumni women, 75% retention rate in Wall Street for these positions and over 200 universities.

So the formula has worked well and has helped to bring a lot more women into finance. But I think it's important to understand that you have to uh break through uh some of the create the awareness around careers in finance. I as an engineer didn't think I could be in a career finance. So create awareness of what's possible uh provide support provide guidance mentorship and continue to support them as they go on. And I think a program like that in a place as Abu Dhabi for example would really really be amazing because the some of the young women I met here are so ambitious.

They're so smart and they really want to explore possible careers in finance and I think creating a a pathway from university to the workforce with the backup and support would be amazing. So fully support programs that would allow more women to enter the workforce.

Thank you Paula. We're running out of time. So for my final question, I would actually like for each one of you to step into a governmental role. We we're creating a ministries of of women. Um Paula, I'll start with you in 10 uh seconds.

As the minister of economy, what policies would you implement to improve consumers protections mandate to increase financial literacy across all societies? I think from a consumer perspective, make uh um information regarding any financial products easy to understand, easy access, so people can understand what they're getting without having to read 10 pages of disclosures.

Thank you, WA. I'll go to you. You're our Minister of Investment. What policies are initiatives would you implement under your ministry to foster a more genderinclusive investment ecosystem?

I'm very comfortable being the Minister of Investment and I would like to manifest it. So sure. Um I think for me personally if I had all this beautiful power I would mandate venture capital to ensure they have inclusive investment committees. I would also mandate that they are able to have more female partners and there's an incredible domino effect. Um having more diverse um infrastructure actually means that they invest in more diverse businesses.

And just like financial institutions today, like banks, if they don't have enough women in positions of leadership, they actually can lose contracts. I'd love to see that same incentive, which is companies starting to really restructure their entities so that there is incentive for them to look for female talent, look for uh femaleled companies so their portfolio can be diverse. And I'm a big believer and I don't want to wait for change to happen. So I'm all about like setting those KPIs and setting that, you know, those benchmarks in place.

Thank you, AFA. I'll move now to our Minister of Finance, Rasha. What policies of or programs would you implement under your ministry to enhance women's access to credit, equity, and financial services?

Um, I think I would um I would definitely um force the uh financial centers and regulators to have uh uh courses on financial literacy for everyone. I think it's a it's a it's an area that needs improving not just for women for for men as equal. Uh and it and it needs and it needs to be part of any investment environment. So in financial centers and regulators this this is something that definitely I I would I would put in there.

Thank you. And last but not least, our minister of education Shireen. What policies or programs would you implement under your ministry to make financial literacy a core component of school curriculums?

I would cut all the noise, the things that we don't remember and I would replace it with three things. Finance, financial courses, whether it's personal finance or corporate finance. I would educate people on legal aspect and I would in invest in um soft skills, skills that will get people jobs because hard skills can be replaced by AI, soft skills cannot. Thank you. Well, I'd love to be appointed as prime minister of your ministries if you'd let me.

Uh thank you. You've honored me and I hope that we see your policies come to life. Thank you so much.