The Spanish stock exchange opens the trading session Ringing the Bell for Financial Literacy

• The Governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, led the event, which is part of the Ring the Bell For Financial Literacy initiative.
• BME's training centre, Instituto BME, celebrates Financial Literacy Day with a series of webinars

Today the Spanish Stock Exchange marked the start of the trading session Ringing the Bell for Financial Literacy. The event, which was held at the Barcelona stock exchange, is part of the Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy initiative, promoted by IOSCO and WFE, in which more than 70 stock exchanges around the world will participate throughout this week. BME thus joins the Financial Literacy Day celebrations and the " Finanzas para todos" (Finance for all) initiative, promoted by the Spanish securities market supervisor - CNMV and the Bank of Spain since 2008.

The governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, led the Bell Ringing. He was accompanied by Javier Hernani, CEO of BME. In his speech, Hernández de Cos emphasized that that "financial literacy also has a macroeconomic aspect, because the fact that citizens make responsible decisions is essential to ensure financial stability".

Javier Hernani reiterated BME's commitment to financial education. "The more financially literate a society is, the better investment decisions its citizens will make, which has a positive impact on the proper functioning of the financial markets and the performance of the economy as a whole," he said.

In addition to the Bell Ringing, BME is celebrating Financial Education Day with a series of webinars hosted by Instituto BME. Entitled "Educación para unas finanzas más seguras" (Education for more reliable finance), three webinars will be held throughout the day dedicated to investor protection (at 10am), regulated versus unregulated financial investment products (at 12pm) and how to avoid fraud and scams in times of information overload (at 4pm).

Since it was created, BME's training centre has provided training to more than 132,000 people. It recently announced an agreement with the Mexican stock exchange to collaborate in the field of Financial Education. Braindex, the 100% online financial education portal launched last year by BME, already offers 44 courses at different levels in Financial Markets and Products, Disclosure, Technology and Regulation applied to the sector.

The photos of the bell ringing are available on this link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/archivobme/albums/72177720302575656