Israeli Financial Literacy

Israeli financial literacy is the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors that help people understand financial products and make decisions about money in Israel. It includes more than familiarity with financial terms: household budgeting, banking, credit, saving, investment, work and retirement planning, and the ability to assess information and risks are all relevant to financial decision-making. Public education, school curricula and consumer information form parts of the subject.^[1][2]

Meaning and scope

Financial literacy is commonly treated as a combination of what people know and how they use that knowledge. In a 2023 speech, the Governor of the Bank of Israel described literacy as involving understanding financial concepts and developing skills for better decisions. He also noted that digital platforms and the widening range of financial services can create new opportunities while making some products and transactions more complex.^[1]

This broad conception matters in Israel because individuals encounter financial decisions at different stages of life. Everyday examples include comparing account costs, reading a bank statement, choosing a payment method or understanding a loan. Longer-term decisions can involve saving and investing, insurance, employment income and retirement planning. The country’s school curriculum and central-bank consumer information cover several of these areas, though they do so through different educational and public-service channels.^[2][3]

Financial literacy is related to, but distinct from, financial inclusion. Literacy concerns knowledge, skills and behavior; inclusion concerns whether people can access and use financial services on reasonable terms. The Bank of Israel’s 2022 interministerial report describes inclusion as equitable access to financial services at reasonable cost. A person may have access to an account or credit product without being able to compare its terms confidently; conversely, knowledge alone does not ensure access to a suitable service.^[4]

Public institutions and policy

Israel’s financial-education activity is distributed across institutions and programs. The Bank of Israel provides consumer-facing educational material on subjects including account-management costs, joint accounts, debit cards, financial fraud, exchange rates and banking consumerism. Its materials are intended to help the public understand particular services and issues; they are not a substitute for institution-specific contract terms or individualized professional advice.^[3]

The Bank of Israel has also framed financial education as a policy and inclusion issue. At a 2023 seminar, Governor Amir Yaron said that digital changes and the expansion of financial services increase the need for public skills to navigate financial opportunities and risks. In the same remarks, he referred to recommendations in the interministerial financial-inclusion report, including establishing an inclusive national-level body to coordinate financial-education activity.^[1] This documents a recommendation, not by itself the creation of such a body or proof that all proposed measures were implemented.

The interministerial report, published in July 2022, examined financial inclusion and gaps in access and use across Israeli society. It reported that overall inclusion was high by comparison with other advanced economies, while identifying gaps affecting Arab society, ultra-Orthodox society and disadvantaged groups with lower socioeconomic status. It also described particularly notable differences in the use of basic financial products among Arab society.^[4] These findings provide context for financial education policy, but they should not be read as a direct measure of financial-literacy levels: access, product use and knowledge are related subjects, not interchangeable indicators.

Financial education in schools

The Ministry of Education’s published junior-high financial-education curriculum is organized into four content areas: informed consumption and financial decision-making; money and banking; the changing labor market; and saving and investment, including the relationship between risk and potential return. The curriculum is structured progressively, with foundational learning in ninth grade and deeper application in tenth grade, according to the ministry’s curriculum description.^[2]

The specified topics connect concepts with practical tasks. In consumer decision-making, students consider rational and emotional influences, social pressure, marketing and consumer rights. The curriculum also includes digital information security and protection against consumer fraud. In the money-and-banking strand, subjects include payment methods, purchasing power, the consumer price index and inflation, commercial banks, account fees, bank statements and credit products. The curriculum’s labor-market strand addresses youth employment rights and, at a later stage, payslips, gross and net wages, direct taxes and pension concepts.^[2]

The saving-and-investment strand introduces choices involving saving, investment and risk. Taken together, the strands present financial capability as a combination of understanding financial institutions and products, evaluating consumer decisions, interpreting income information and thinking about longer-term goals. The curriculum is a formal education framework; its publication does not, on its own, establish how consistently it is taught in every school or what outcomes students achieve.^[2]

Evidence and research

Research on Israeli retirement planning illustrates why financial literacy is not measured only by a person’s ability to answer questions about financial terms. A study by Adi Meir, Yevgeny Mugerman and Orly Sade, published in the *Israel Economic Review* and made available by the Bank of Israel, examined retirement literacy through financial knowledge and decision-making behavior. It reported positive correlations between retirement literacy and activities such as seeking financial information and monitoring household expenses. After controlling for other variables, the authors found no significant correlation between retirement literacy and financial knowledge or numeracy skills.^[5]

The study also reported that checking bills and periodic account statements was associated with greater literacy regarding retirement savings. These are reported associations, not proof that checking statements causes better retirement decisions. The research focuses on retirement literacy and should not be treated as a current, comprehensive assessment of all financial-literacy skills among Israel’s population.^[5]

An older survey discussed in the article was conducted by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics among 1,200 people aged 20 and older between January and May 2012. The paper notes that media sources were the most popular source respondents used when seeking financial information. Because the survey dates from 2012, it offers historical evidence rather than a description of present-day information habits, particularly given subsequent growth in digital financial services.^[5]

International comparison requires attention to what a survey measures and which countries participated. The OECD/INFE’s 2023 international survey describes a coordinated exercise measuring adult financial-literacy levels across participating countries and economies. The report page identifies 39 participants, including 20 OECD members; it should not be used to assign Israel a score or ranking unless Israel-specific participation and results are established from the survey materials.^[6]

Practical areas of financial capability

In Israel, practical financial capability can be considered across several connected areas. In banking, consumers may need to compare fees, understand account statements and distinguish among payment and credit arrangements. The Bank of Israel’s education portal groups information on these subjects, including account costs, debit cards and financial fraud.^[3] The school curriculum likewise includes bank fees, statements and credit-related concepts.^[2]

Household financial planning also involves income and spending. The school program names personal budgeting as a tool for responsible financial management and includes interpretation of payslips and distinctions between gross and net wages. These subjects connect day-to-day financial choices with employment and household cash flow.^[2] For longer-term planning, the curriculum introduces basic pension concepts, while Israeli research has examined the relationship between information-seeking, account-monitoring behavior and retirement literacy.^[2][5]

Consumer protection and digital safety are additional components. The curriculum includes digital information security and protection from consumer fraud, and the central bank lists financial fraud among its public education topics.^[2][3] These topics are relevant to financial decision-making because a person’s ability to evaluate an offer or transaction includes recognizing risks as well as understanding price, interest or expected return.^[1][2]

Limitations and continuing policy questions

The available evidence points to multiple strands of activity rather than a single measure of national financial literacy. School curricula set out intended content, public portals provide information about selected consumer issues, research studies examine particular behaviors, and inclusion reports analyze access and use. None of these alone provides a complete picture of what adults and students know, whether they can apply that knowledge in different circumstances, or how results vary across language, age and socioeconomic groups.^[2][3][4][5]

The 2022 interministerial report’s findings on gaps in financial inclusion underscore that service access and use may differ among population groups. The Bank of Israel’s 2023 remarks proposed national coordination of financial-education activity, while the Ministry of Education curriculum provides a defined school-based framework. Together, these sources document policy attention to financial education and inclusion, but evaluation of reach and results requires evidence beyond the existence of recommendations or teaching materials.^[1][2][4]

Financial literacy in Israel is therefore best understood as an evolving public-policy and educational field as well as an individual capability. Its institutional setting includes central-bank consumer information, school curriculum and interministerial analysis; its practical scope includes banking, payments, credit, household budgeting, work, saving, investment and retirement. Available research supports examining both knowledge and behavior, while also distinguishing individual capability from access to appropriate financial services.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}