The debate over the use of personal information in the area of payment services has heightened with  6/7  the new Directive known as PSD2, which institutionalises the so-called TPP (Third Party Providers). TPP encompass “payment initiation service providers” and “account information service providers”. The former offer an alternative to the use of cards when making electronic purchase payments. The latter provide consolidated information on the status of the various accounts the customer has with entities, thereby facilitating financial planning. Payments account holders are entitled to authorise these third party providers to order payments on their behalf and/or to consult information associated with their accounts. Against this background, and irrespective of the usefulness of these services, it is important that customers should strive to understand the real scope of the authorisation granted, which may entail access to their account by a third party on the same footing as if it were the customers themselves accessing the account. Faced with risks such as the foregoing, magnified by the development of new technologies, I believe that financial education has a role to play. It may help, for example, make people aware of the change in reality that the digital arrangement of agreements entails or increase the digital competences of the public at large. The Financial Education Plan Mindful of the foregoing, the Banco de España and the CNMV continue working on their commitment to financial education through the Financial Education Plan.
The aim is to assess whether the interviewee understands: (i) that money loses purchasing power when prices rise; (ii) that the changes in an amount saved in an account over five years depend not only on the annual interest rate applied to the amount saved the first year, but also on the interest accumulated thereafter; and iii) that the risk of investing in equities diminishes if a broad range of shares is acquired instead of only one type. The replies, obtained from a broad sample of randomly selected individuals representing Spanish territory as a whole and each of its regions, and provided by INE, reveal, inter alia, 3/7  the following results: (i) 58% of interviewees understand what inflation is; (ii) 46% understand the concept of compound interest; (iii) 49% understand the concept of risk diversification; and (iv) the percentage of correct replies increases with educational level and household income level. Given that the Survey includes questions from an international project to measure financial competences, it is possible to compare these results with those obtained in other countries, in particular with OECD countries and EU countries that have information available in this connection. The comparison shows that the percentage of correct replies in Spain regarding the concepts of inflation and risk diversification is below the average, particularly in the case of risk diversification, in which the averages for the OECD and EU countries stand at 62% in both groups (compared with 49% in Spain).