The Regional Financial Inclusion Landscape of Youth Bank Accounts: Selected Country Cases from Central and Eastern Europe

The report presents and analyzes the findings of the study conducted by CYFI Secretariat and its network partners in 2014-2015 on the availability and features of banking products for children and youth in five selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe – Armenia, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic and Moldova. More than 60 financial service providers (FSPs) from these countries responded to a comprehensive survey on the existence, features, integration of financial education component and characteristics of current and savings accounts that they are offering for children and youth.

Findings indicate that more than 80% of FSPs do offer a bank account for young people, but a far lower percentage of these products comply with Child and Youth Friendly Banking Principles, created by CYFI, Mastercard and CYFI network partners. The current report is the first attempt to collect and analyze this kind of data, and CYFI Secretariat aims to develop and deepen the analysis when replicating the study in other regions and countries in the future.