Conceptual approaches to creating the preconditions for effective financial education of the Russian population

The global financial crisis that broke out in 2008 highlighted the problem of low levels of financial literacy among the population of different countries, and the response to this was the creation of national financial education systems where international economic organizations played the guiding and coordinating role. Russia also launched a joint project of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the world Bank in 2011, and then adopted a Strategy to improve financial literacy of the population. However, despite the efforts and money spent, the level of the Russians’ financial literacy and their trust in financial institutions remains low. The article presents conceptual approaches to creatingthe preconditions for effective financial education of Russian residents and describes the structural and functional model within which this can be implemented. The information base of the research is the data from Russian and international studies on financial literacy of the population and works devoted to their comparative analysis; the guidelines and analytical materials of international organizations; the results of an expert survey conducted by the authors with the participation of 136 experts from 30 regions of Russia. It is shown that effective financial education is impossible without an effective income policy, when the population has free money, and the need to dispose this money generates a practical interest in improving financial literacy. The second fundamental condition is the implementation of the “trust policy”, i.e. ensuring the operation of the state mechanism that does not allow the depreciation of citizens’ savings and reliably protects their rights when interacting with financial institutions. Stability and predictability of economic development, refusal to impose excessive consumption standards on the population, physical accessibility of credit and financial institutions in small towns and villages, development of information and communication infrastructure, and increasing the Russians’ digital culture are important. The main components of financial education proper are described; the approaches to defining target groups for financial literacy training and selecting appropriate educational programs are proposed.