The Banco de Portugal holds a #TopTip financial education campaign session in the Azores

On 13 February, the Banco de Portugal held a #TopTip financial education campaign session at Escola Secundária de Lagoa, on S. Miguel Island (the Azores).

70 upper-secondary students played the game “Armoured Mission”, which aims to draw young people’s attention to the importance of adopting security procedures when using digital channels on computers, tablets or smartphones.

On this occasion, the Vice-Governor of the Banco de Portugal, Luís Máximo dos Santos stated that “this initiative is a further example of the Banco de Portugal’s commitment to the promotion of digital financial education”. He underlined that young people use new technologies with ease, but warned that their excess of confidence may expose them to security risks. He also reaffirmed the role that young people can play in passing on this knowledge to friends and family. “You can count on the Banco de Portugal to continue pursuing and deepening this mission”, concluded the Vice-Governor of the Banco de Portugal.

Rodrigo Reis, Regional Director of Education of the Azores, participated in this session and thanked the school and the Banco de Portugal’s readiness to host this important initiative.

In the game “Armoured Mission”, students ‘became’ highly specialised technicians in cybersecurity and online fraud prevention. Their mission was to alert employees of their ‘companies’ to existing risks such as fraudulent emails, insecure passwords or telephone calls aiming to defraud the workers and company. For each security breach, their ‘company’ registered a negative financial impact. At the end, the winner was the team with the fewest financial losses.

Digital financial education campaign #TopTip

The #TopTip campaign is a digital financial education campaign promoted by the Banco de Portugal since 2018 that aims to raise youth awareness of the care needed when accessing banking products and services through digital channels.

The tips shared on this Website and on Instagram are collected in the brochure “5 tips for staying safer online” prepared by the Banco de Portugal.

The Banco de Portugal distributed copies of the brochure at lower and upper secondary schools throughout the country and has held awareness raising sessions about the subject at the schools, thanks to the support of its regional network.