Financial Education in Brazil in 2024: Fewer Initiatives, Wider Reach

📉 Fewer Initiatives, Wider Reach: The New Landscape of Financial Education in Brazil

The financial education landscape in Brazil underwent profound changes in 2024.

A survey conducted by Anbima (the Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association) revealed that the total number of financial education initiatives fell to 229 initiatives, a significant drop of 57% compared with the previous study, conducted in 2017.

Despite the decline in quantity, quality made significant strides: projects now reach a much larger audience, with more focused strategies and greater impact.

This shift reflects a repositioning of the sector, which is seeking greater effectiveness and reach.

✅ Fewer Initiatives but Wider National Reach

In terms of reach, the numbers are impressive. In 2024, 29% of initiatives reached more than 10,000 people, three times the 9% recorded in 2017.

This shows that, even with fewer events, organizers are reaching larger audiences, whether through online events, strategic partnerships, or hybrid formats.

The focus, which used to be scattered across many small, isolated initiatives, is now concentrated on large, high-impact campaigns, with better planning, execution, and measurement of results.

✅ Who Is Leading Financial Education Initiatives?

The study also pointed to an important shift in the profile of the institutions leading these initiatives:

• Financial market institutions: 47%

• Schools and universities: 28%

• Services sector: 10%

• Industry: 1%

• Retail: 1%

• Other sectors: 13%

This distribution highlights the financial sector’s continued leadership but also shows the increasingly significant participation of educational institutions, which have begun including the topic in school curricula, extension courses, and social responsibility programs.

The participation of the services sector and other segments also points to a more diverse range of financial education promoters, including NGOs, tech companies, startups, and government agencies.

Digitalization and the Growth of Hybrid Formats

One of the decisive factors behind the wider reach was digital acceleration. While in 2017 only 18% of initiatives were delivered in a hybrid format, combining in-person and virtual activities, by 2024 that figure had jumped to 58%.

This progress was driven not only by the pandemic, which forced institutions to go digital, but also by the popularity of tools such as:

In addition, the vast majority of initiatives remained free (74%) and national in scope (70%), demonstrating a collective effort to democratize access to financial knowledge in every region of Brazil.

✅ Digital Influencers: The New Stars of Financial Education

The role of social media and digital influencers took center stage in Anbima’s report.

According to the survey, personal finance influencers now have a combined 200 million-plus followers in Brazil.

This communication power has been essential to:

• Popularize economic concepts

• Translate technical terms into accessible language

• Engage young people and lower-income audiences

• Demystify topics such as investing, credit, and financial planning

According to Marcelo Billi, Anbima’s head of sustainability, innovation, and education: The wider reach of these initiatives is a direct result of the sector’s professionalization and the power of social media.

Influencers have made financial education more accessible, appealing, and present in people’s everyday lives.

The strategy of combining digital influence with institutional content has created a new dynamic, in which short TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and YouTube series complement longer courses and teaching materials.

✅ Structural Challenges Remain

Despite notable progress, Anbima’s study points to several challenges that have yet to be overcome:

📌 Lack of Continuity

Most initiatives are still one-off events, without long-term schedules.

This undermines continuity of learning and makes it harder for participants to develop healthy financial habits.

📌 Limited Socioeconomic Inclusion

Although reach has grown, many projects still don’t adequately consider the socioeconomic realities of more vulnerable audiences.

A lack of regional, cultural, and language adaptation limits the impact in underserved areas and among low-income populations.

📌 Educator Training

Another bottleneck identified is the shortage of programs to train financial educators.

Without a solid base of qualified professionals, teaching quality can suffer, even with good intentions and technological resources.

📌 Weak Integration with Public Policy

The survey also highlighted the need for greater coordination with public policy, especially in elementary, middle, and high schools.

The lack of a structured national strategy limits financial education’s potential to drive change in Brazil.

✅Research Methodology: A Comprehensive Overview

The research was conducted by Anbima in partnership with Plano CDE, an institute known for its social and market research. The survey included:

• Questionnaires sent to companies, educational institutions, NGOs, and government agencies across all regions of the country.

• Qualitative interviews with organizers and participants, seeking to understand motivations, challenges, and expectations.

• Comparative analysis with 2017 data, to assess how the landscape has evolved.

This approach enabled a detailed mapping of the sector, providing a critical and constructive reading of both the progress made and the remaining gaps.

✅ Success Stories and Inspiring Examples

Some initiatives cited as examples of best practices include:

• Gamification platforms: Aimed at young people, these apps combine fun and learning, encouraging positive financial habits in a playful way.

• Webinars with experts: Banks and brokerages have been hosting livestreams and online courses with well-known experts, allowing live interaction and later access to recordings.

• Social projects in underserved communities: NGOs partnering with the private sector have been bringing family financial planning workshops to low-income areas.

• Corporate financial education programs: Mid-sized and large companies are incorporating financial education into their HR routines, offering courses and advisory services to employees.

These examples show that it’s possible to combine innovation, social inclusion, and real impact.

📌 Paths Forward: How to Advance Sustainably

Based on the findings of Anbima and Plano CDE, the future of financial education in Brazil rests on five major strategic pillars:

1. Institutionalizing initiatives

   • Setting a fixed calendar

   • Creating performance indicators

2. Diversity and Inclusion

   • Developing content tailored to different audiences: seniors, young people, women, Indigenous populations, and others.

3. Public-Private Partnerships

   • Integration with public schools, community centers, and government social programs.

4. Educator Training

   • Ongoing investment in training and updating teachers, consultants, and speakers.

5. Innovation and Technology

   • Exploring new formats such as podcasts, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and educational chatbots.

✅ Conclusion: A Sector in Transition, but with a Long Way to Go

Anbima’s study reinforces that, even with fewer initiatives in absolute terms, Brazil’s financial education sector is advancing in terms of quality, reach, and innovation.

The phrase that perhaps best sums up the current landscape is: Less is more — as long as it’s done well and with purpose.

For Brazil to keep making progress, a joint effort will be needed among companies, educators, influencers, government, and civil society.

The challenge now is to turn growing interest in financial education into real behavior change, creating a generation of consumers who are more mindful, better at planning, and prepared to handle the economic challenges of the future.