Pacific Islands News Institution (PINA) published a blog-post in early October this year reporting about excessive penalty fees levied by local banks. This issue received attention after similar cases have become public in Australia. "Ms Kumar [Fiji Council CEO] noted last year banks charged Australian households almost 1 billion in penalty fees from overdrawn accounts, credit card late payment and payment using over the limit and so forth."

According to the post, financial literacy programs in Fiji put special emphasis on "equipping people with skills on how to plan household budgets, need and ways of savings, preparing savings plan and micro-finance." Ms Kumar's reasoning is very much in line with ChildFinance's approach when she states: “Educated consumers can benefit the economy by encouraging genuine competition, forcing the service providers to innovate and improve their levels of efficiency.’

Ms Kumar continues that financial education of children and youth has to include consumer protection as an essential factor among pillars such as savings and micro-finance. In fact Ms Kumar makes an explicit case for the need of child-friendly banking regulation, when she concludes "junior secondary students opened banks accounts and saved money but their accounts closed due to maintenance and other fee charges."

This case from Fiji demonstrates the global scope of the issue and the need for concerted action in addressing the challenges on a global level.

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