FinComp: the European financial competence framework for adults

A framework shared by the Commission and the OECD

FinComp is the European financial competence framework for adults, published in 2022 by the European Commission together with the OECD. It defines 22 competences across 4 areas, spelled out in 367 descriptors.

The joint authorship is not a bureaucratic detail: it means the framework was built as a bridge between European financial education policy and the methodological work the OECD has been doing on financial literacy for years. Whoever adopts it speaks a language recognised at both tables.

The four areas

1. Money and transactions

The basics: recognising the forms money takes, managing payments and accounts, understanding prices and costs, keeping track of spending. It is the most concrete area, and the one where gaps have immediate effects.

2. Planning and managing finances

Household budgeting, saving, borrowing, long-term planning, managing income over time. Here competence is not product knowledge but the ability to project yourself into the future.

3. Risk and reward

Understanding that return and risk are linked, recognising diversification, assessing insurance and protection, spotting scams and unfair practices. This is the area that protects against the worst decisions.

4. The financial landscape

Context and rights: how the financial system works, what consumer protections exist, where to turn in a dispute, how to inform a decision. Without this area the other three remain technique without real power.

Three dimensions per competence

FinComp does not just list what to know. Every competence is described across three dimensions: knowledge, behaviours and attitudes.

That is the framework's most interesting choice. Knowing what compound interest is, is knowledge; checking your account regularly is behaviour; feeling entitled to ask an intermediary for clarification is attitude. OECD research shows the three do not pull each other along: you can be well informed and still decide badly.

That has a practical consequence: a financial education pathway that works only on knowledge covers a third of the problem.

Where to use it

• Adult education, to build modules around identifiable competences instead of generic topics.
• Evaluating public programmes, as a grid for measuring what an intervention actually developed.
• Financial education at school, as the reference that pathways converge towards.

Explore the 4 areas, 22 competences and 367 descriptors on the FinComp portal at ExplorerHub.