Belgian youth and their money: a new festival to learn how to avoid financial pitfalls
The first edition of finfest will take place on Saturday 27 February 2027 at the Oude Vismijn in Ghent. An initiative of finfest vzw, the festival aims to help young people aged 16 to 30 better understand their finances in an accessible way. By supporting finfest, BNP Paribas Fortis continues to show its commitment to improving financial literacy among young people.
BNP Paribas Fortis believes that financial literacy is essential to enable young people to make informed decisions about their money. With this in mind, the bank is supporting finfest, an event that aims to educate young people about their finances in an engaging and entertaining way. The organisers deliberately chose a festival format to avoid creating the atmosphere of a financial seminar or conference.
Economists, content creators, and hackers come together to talk about money differently
The finfest programme revolves around four themes:
- Earning money
- Spending money
- Saving and investing
- Financial pitfalls and how to avoid them
These themes are explored in the following finzones: The Hustle Hub (earning); The Spend Space (spending); The Save Cave (saving and investing); and The Money Pit (financial pitfalls).
Hosted by TV personalities Kobe Ilsen and Charlotte Sieben, the festival will bring together speakers who will each shed light on money, work and finance from their own area of expertise. The full programme has yet to be announced, but the first speakers have already been revealed:
- Average Rob: content creator and entrepreneur known for ventures including the beer brand Tout Bien and the chip shop chain La Patate
- Stijn Baert: economist and professor of labour economics at Ghent University
- Inti De Ceukelaire: ethical hacker and co-founder of the cybersecurity platform Intigriti
- Kenneth De Beckker: professor and financial literacy expert at the Open University and KU Leuven
- Gunther Devisch: founder of Promojagers, a platform focused on saving money and smart shopping
- Sarah Zwaenepoel: budget coach and author of Iedereen Miljonair
- Chris Sugira: financial expert for VTM Nieuws, Het Laatste Nieuws and Money Time
- Reinout Van Zandycke: communications expert specialising in nudging and the psychology of persuasion
BNP Paribas Fortis promotes financial literacy
For BNP Paribas Fortis, the sponsorship reflects a broader conviction that considerable efforts are still needed to improve financial literacy in Belgium. The figures illustrate this need.
BNP Paribas Fortis’s own research shows that:
- 49% of Belgians need financial education and guidance [i]
- 74% of Belgians expect their bank to play a role in providing financial education [ii]
- 25% of financially independent Belgians have limited financial knowledge (a maximum of one correct answer in a five-question quiz about saving and investing). Among 16- to 27-year-olds, this proportion is twice as high. Moreover, this group tends to overestimate its knowledge. [iii]
That’s exactly the gap between confidence in your own knowledge and what you truly understand that finfest aims to bridge
“Earning more, keeping more of what you earn, understanding investing better and losing less money: these are the things that matter to young people,” says Laurent Loncke, Head of Retail Banking at BNP Paribas Fortis. “Our own research shows that this generation in particular often overestimates its financial knowledge, while the need for guidance is considerable. As a bank, we therefore want to be more than just a service provider. We also want to be a partner that helps people become financially self-reliant. finfest does this in a way that genuinely appeals to young people, without being preachy and with an emphasis on practical, relatable topics. That is exactly the kind of initiative we want to support as a bank.”
For many years, BNP Paribas Fortis has been helping young people become more financially self-reliant by strengthening their financial literacy through guest lessons, partnerships with educational organisations and support for local incubators. BNP Paribas Fortis employees play a key role in these efforts.
In secondary schools, BNP Paribas Fortis employees give guest lessons on topics such as money management, saving, budgeting and responsible borrowing. Teachers can request these lessons free of charge through the bank’s partners: Vlajo (Vlaamse Jonge Ondernemingen) and Klasse Bank in Flanders, and Banque en classe in Wallonia and Brussels. The aim is to equip young people with practical skills relevant to their everyday lives, from managing pocket money to taking their first steps towards financial independence.
For 50 years, BNP Paribas Fortis has been a committed partner of young entrepreneurs, through Vlajo in Flanders and LJE in Wallonia and Brussels. The bank’s support goes beyond financial services, such as opening accounts for student projects, and includes the active involvement of its employees. They share their expertise as coaches, judges or guest speakers at events such as the Mini-Ondernemingsdagen and Start-up Challenges. Alongside these initiatives, the bank is also strengthening its commitment at local level through partnerships with regional incubators such as VentureLab (Wallonia), Charleroi Entreprendre (Wallonia) and StartLab (Brussels). BNP Paribas Fortis employees play an active role in these initiatives as mentors, judges or experts at pitch competitions, hackathons and networking events.
Financial awareness is the foundation for a healthy financial future, whether it involves saving responsibly, starting a business or borrowing. Initiatives such as finfest put this commitment into practice in an accessible and engaging way, making financial education relevant and interesting to everyone.
Practical information
What: finfest: the first money festival for young people
When: 27 February 2027
Where: Oude Vismijn, 9000 Ghent
Target audience: 16- to 30-year-olds taking their first steps towards financial independence
Language: Dutch
Tickets and more information: www.finfest.be
Footnotes:
[i] BNP Paribas Fortis Customer Research, April 2024 – Representative sample of 1,505 financially independent Belgians (18+).
[ii] BNP Paribas Fortis Customer Research, June 2023 – Representative sample of 1,500 Belgians (16+).
[iii] BNP Paribas Fortis Customer Research, September 2024 – Representative sample of 1,500 Belgians (16–85 years).
