Financial education, financial inclusion, and consumer financial protection are the three key components necessary for both the financial empowerment of individuals and the stability of the financial system. The OECD/INFE (2020) identifies the assessment of adult financial literacy as a crucial element of every successful national strategy and as an important aspect of overall financial system stability. The OECD/INFE (2020) defines financial literacy as a combination of awareness, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours necessary to make rational financial decisions and ultimately achieve individual financial well-being.
Since Bosnia and Herzegovina was not part of the past OECD/INFE international financial literacy surveys, the primary goal of the Financial Literacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina project was to survey the population using the recent OECD/INFE methodology (OECD, 2022) with the aim to evaluate their financial literacy levels. The conducted research covered a representative and random sample of the general adult population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with respondents surveyed from approximately 100 municipalities out of a total of 142 municipalities in the country. The results are presented in the UNSA 2022 Survey of Adult Financial Literacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Zaimović et al., 2024).
The OECD/INFE methodology (OECD, 2022) was also applied in surveying MSME managers in the Sarajevo Canton. The sample of this survey adequately reflects the structure of enterprises in Sarajevo Canton regarding company size and sector of activity. Detailed results are presented in the UNSA 2023 Survey of MSME Managers’ Financial Literacy in Sarajevo Canton (Zaimović et al., 2024).
The FinEdu UNSA project’s online platform provides not only studies and research but also various digital educational materials developed within the project. Interactive online surveys offer insight into levels of financial literacy, digital financial literacy, and individual financial resilience through the calculation of scores for different components of financial literacy and resilience. These interactive surveys enable benchmarking of achieved results against the average scores of the general adult population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as global and OECD countries averages, based on the latest research. This allows users to self-assess their knowledge, attitudes, behaviour, resilience, and well-being in relation to both national and global averages.
As a result of the conducted financial literacy research of adults in Bosnia and Herzegovina and MSME managers in Sarajevo Canton, four scientific papers have been published or are in process of publishing:
Zaimovic, A., Omanovic, A., Dedovic, L., Zaimovic, T., (2025), The Effect of Business Experience on Fintech Behavioural Adoption among MSME Managers: The Mediating Role of Digital Financial Literacy and its Components, Future Business Journal, paper accepted, in publishing, https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-025-00432-x
Zaimovic, A., Omanovic, A., Nuhic Meskovic, M., Arnaut-Berilo, A., Zaimovic, T., Dedovic, L., & Torlakovic, A. (2025). The nexus between digital financial knowledge and financial inclusion: digital financial attitudes and behaviour as mediators enhancing financial inclusion. International Journal of Bank Marketing. Vol. 43 No. 2, pp. 388-423, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-01-2024-0053
Zaimovic, A., Nuhic Meskovic, M., Dedovic, L., Arnaut-Berilo, A., Zaimovic, T., & Torlakovic, A. (2024). Measuring Digital Financial Literacy. Procedia Computer Science, 236, 574-581, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2024.05.068
Zaimovic, A., Torlakovic, A., Arnaut-Berilo, A., Zaimovic, T., Dedovic, L., & Nuhic Meskovic, M. (2023). Mapping financial literacy: A systematic literature review of determinants and recent trends. Sustainability, 15(12), 9358, https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129358
The University of Sarajevo – Center for Research and Development is the implementer of the project.
The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Science, Higher Education, and Youth of Sarajevo Canton under the Public call for co-financing scientific research projects from 2022.