2025 British Virgin Islands (British Overseas Territory) Global Money Week

PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS:

• Bregado Flax Educational Centre Secondary Division, Claudia Creque Educational Centre, Virgin Islands School of Technical Studies, Elmore Stoutt High School, BVI Seventh-Day Adventist School, St. George’s Secondary School, Cedar International School, VP Bank (BVI ) Ltd, National Bank of the Virgin Islands, Republic Bank (BVI) Limited, FirstBank V.I., Banco Popular, Caribbean Insurers Limited, and Ogier.

TOTAL NUMBER OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS:

• 14

NUMBER OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE REACHED DIRECTLY:

• 309

NUMBER OF ADULTS REACHED DIRECTLY:

• 47

NUMBER OF PEOPLE REACHED INDIRECTLY:

• 665

The BVI Financial Services Commission (FSC), through its financial literacy programme MONEY MATTERS BVI, led the Territory’s activities for the 13 th edition of Global Money Week (GMW) 2025.

Through careful coordination, a series of engaging educational activities were executed to equip young minds with essential financial knowledge. Global Money Week (which coincided with the local celebration of Education Month) served as a time to reflect on the role that education plays in the development of the Virgin Islands. Our GMW 2025 celebrations were supercharged by activities which focused on empowering young people with the knowledge, skills, and behaviours necessary to make sound financial decisions as part of shaping the future of learning.

During GMW 2025 MONEY MATTERS BVI hosted a “Young Money – Convert Spending & Grow Your Money” student workshop, in line with the GMW 2025 theme “Think before you follow, wise money tomorrow” providing an exclusive, interactive learning opportunity for upper-level secondary students. With participation from 50+ students from across the Territory, including the main island – Tortola, and smaller outer Virgin Islands, the workshop challenged students to think critically about their spending habits, financial independence, and wealth-building strategies for the future. The event featured a Banking Expo with representatives from local retail banks and a Lunch & Learn session led by the Managing Director of the FSC, Mr. Kenneth Baker, teamed with senior members of staff to share valuable regulatory insights to the students on being smart consumers, securing their personal information from fraud and identity theft as well as an introduction to Fintech.

Further extending its commitment to financial education and GMW, MONEY MATTERS BVI facilitated a number of financial literacy empowerment sessions which specifically targeted students on our sister islands of Anegada, Virgin Gorda, and Jost Van Dyke reaching 150+ children and young people.

GMW 2025 activities ended with a tour of BVI financial institutions to raise awareness of the role of financial services providers and improve the financial knowledge of young people. Participating institutions not only conveyed the ways in which their various corporate entities impacted the local community, but also stressed to students the importance of adopting a responsible and forward- looking approach to making smart money management decisions.

2024 British Virgin Islands Global Money Week

COORDINATOR:

• British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission

PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS:

• Financial Investigation Agency, Creque's Insurance Agency Limited, BVI Treasury Department, Maples Group BVI, Ogier BVI, Bank of Asia BVI, National Bank of the Virgin Islands, Republic Bank, Banco Popular, RiteWay Food Markets. Schools: Bregado Flax Educational Centre, Cedar International School, Virgin Islands School of Technical Studies, Elmore Stoutt High School, Ivan Dawson Primary School, Willard Wheatley Primary School, Robinson O’Neal Primary School, Agape Total Life Academy, First Impression Primary School, Pelican Gate School, Leonora Delville Primary School, Imagination Academy VI, Claudia Creque Educational Centre.

TOTAL NUMBER OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS:

• 11

NUMBER OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE REACHED DIRECTLY:

• 100

NUMBER OF ADULTS REACHED DIRECTLY:

• 166

NUMBER OF PEOPLE REACHED INDIRECTLY:

• 25

For the third year in a row, Money Matters BVI, the financial literacy programme at the BVI Financial Services Commission, led the Territory’s celebration of Global Money Week (GMW2024).

For GMW2024, MONEY MATTERS, BVI coordinated opportunities for young people across the Territory to engage with corporate professionals in the regulatory, legal, banking, trusts, and insurance sectors to raise their awareness of the macroeconomic importance of each entity in the Territory. Emphasis was placed on the link between the professional activities of each entity and their impact on the local economy, while presenters also stressed the importance of adopting a responsible and forward-looking approach to making smart money management decisions.

In line with the GMW theme for 2024 – ‘Protect your money, secure your future’—the aim of this year’s ‘Tour of Financial Institutions’ initiative was to continue building positive money mindsets in young people from an early age, raising familiarity regarding the role of financial services providers, and improving the financial knowledge of future generations. Almost 100 students aged 5 to 18 years participated in the ‘Tour of Financial Institutions’ with approximately 34 teachers and volunteers. 

Additionally, two highway billboard spaces were utilised for GMW2024. Both boards used motivational messages encouraging residents to protect their future by investing wisely, with target to youths, adolescents and adults. 

Adding to the GMW activities, MONEY MATTERS BVI continued financial literacy activities in the months following with the annual Adolescent Financial Literacy Perspectives Forum (also known as AFLiP) and annual Piggy Bank Pageant and Piggy Bank Exhibition. At AFLiP 2024, students from the seven major secondary schools in the territory squared off in a two-hour round-robin debate on their financial literacy understanding and to Thomas J Stanley and William D Danko’s book The Millionaire Next Door. The Exhibition and Pageant, attracted over 50 pre-school and primary-level students who crafted unique money saving receptacles out of cans, cardboard, wood, and plastics, depicting iconic fictional children’s characters and popular local and religious heroes. Apart from a display of the unique array of children’s bank, the exhibition afforded visitors to view collector coins, play money-to-goods calculation games, view a collection of mass-produced piggy banks, and learn unique facts about the partnering retail banks.

2022 British Virgin Islands Global Money Week

COORDINATOR:

• BVI Financial Services Commission, MONEY MATTERS BVI unit

PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS:

• Althea Scatliffe Primary School; First Impressions Primary School; St. George’s Primary School; Elmore Stoutt High School; VI School of Technical Studies; Bregado Flax Educational Centre – Secondary Division; Bregado Flax Educational Centre – Primary Division; Joyce Samuel Primary School; Agape Total Life Academy; Century House Montessori School; Pelican Gate School; Excelsior Primary School; Popular V.I.; FirstBank V.I.; CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank; VP Bank (BVI) Ltd; National Bank of the Virgin Islands; Republic Bank (BVI) Limited; Pension Management Interactive; Caribbean Insurers Limited; Alphonso Warner Insurance Agency; Creque’s Insurance Agency Limited; NAGICO BVI – Century Insurance Agency Ltd.; Treasury Department, Government of the Virgin Islands; 284 Media; Virgin Islands News Online; BVI Beacon

TOTAL NUMBER OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS:

• Not reported

NUMBER OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE REACHED DIRECTLY:

• 345

NUMBER OF PEOPLE REACHED INDIRECTLY:

• 10,700

MONEY MATTERS BVI in collaboration with several local financial institutions led the British Virgin Islands’ (BVI) participation in Global Money Week activities through various initiatives.

A press release was published and carried by local print, radio, and social media houses to kick off the week. A billboard sign was also erected near a main highway high traffic area to raise public awareness regarding the campaign and theme of “Build your future, be smart about money.”

The main highlight for the week commenced on Monday 22 March and involved MONEY MATTERS BVI, which hosted visits to the premises of participating financial services providers. A safari bus company was hired to transport the various cohorts of children. MONEY MATTERS BVI facilitated 32 separate trips with a total of 345 children, 75% of whom were between ages 6 and 12, with the remaining others being between ages 13 and 18. During the visits children learnt about insurance risks, underinsurance, different types of insurance, the job of tellers and other bank officers, how automatic teller machines work, negotiable instruments, taxes, purchase orders, salaries, loans, vaults, safety deposit boxes, investment banking, pensions, stock markets, the impact of international events on invested funds, and more. They were given significant access to various areas at the banks, shown examples of documents, and visited an active investment trading floor. Updates regarding the visits were provided to the public in the form of photos and commentary posted on the MONEY MATTERS BVI Facebook and Instagram pages.

Whilst facilitating the youngest groups of students, MONEY MATTERS BVI team was pleased to have them interact with their mascot – Ace the Ant, along with a mascot from one of the local banks.

During the visits, the MONEY MATTERS BVI team members wore branded GMW polo shirts. Officers of the participating financial institutions lauded the field trip initiative as an excellent way for youth to gain first-hand experience of the importance of financial services and the financial system, and the role that money plays. Apart from being willing to answer the many questions that the students came armed with, they gifted students with brochures and refreshments; further, a lucky group of young students each left one bank with a freshly minted one-dollar bill.

As a post-activity task, MONEY MATTERS BVI provided primary teachers with ‘I Came, I Saw, I learnt’ forms which students completed and used for subsequent discussions and presentations at school.