A fun way to learn about the stock market

In keeping with our goal of increasing financial literacy among young people, and given our strategy of supporting our customers, we decided to participate in this year’s stock market simulation competition.

We already had more than 1.000 participants in previous competitions and would like to keep the participation rate high as well this year. The main idea is to familiarise our customers, especially the younger generation, with the stock markets through the "learning by doing" concept. At the same time, we see this competition as an opportunity to encourage our customers to invest, whether through our S-Invest solution or via S-Net, our online banking app.

The name

Two years ago, we decided to use the English name for the competition. We went from "Planspiel Börse" to "Stock Market Learning", which is more modern and self-explaining.

This year marks the third edition with the new name and also the new approach. Before we focused mainly on secondary schools, teachers, as well as university students. Now we are making the experience also available to a much wider target: all Axxess customers.

The target widening

Initially, you had to be part of a group to enter and take part with your school. Now the competition is open to our Axxess customers, meaning young people aged 18 to 30.

The new rules

The "Deutscher Sparkassen und Giro Verband (DSGV)  runs the competition. Therefore, they are the ones defining the rules. Each participant can now enter online on an individual basis using a unique code.

This means a participant can log on anytime and is constantly updated (in real time) on his portfolio’s performance.

A communication focused on financial education

We created more dedicated content in order to educate by playing about the investment topic. Therefore, we created a web page where young (and not-so-young) people can find information about the contest, as well as the links to enter the competition and general information about how stock markets work. The goal is to increase our customers’ financial literacy and provide them with basic information about the stock markets.

We have split the competition into two parts so there are two types of prizes up for grabs.

For the general competition, the participants who grew their portfolio the most (from an initial (virtual) investment of EUR 50.000) at the end of the exercise will win the following prizes:

First prize: EUR 1.000

Second prize: EUR 500

Third prize: EUR 250

We will also give the participant who earns the most money from sustainable securities with the Sustainability prize which is a EUR 1000 gift voucher from the "Naturata" shops. 

By the way, the prizes to be won are real, not virtual euros. 😉

Climate change and environmental degradation are highly topical issues. This is true in general, but also in the world of finance.

Since 2006, we have signed on to several charters as part of our ambition to be a socially and environmentally responsible bank.

In 2019, we also launched the Lux-Bond Green investment fund and, in 2020, Lux-Equity Green. They both invest in green securities or in projects that seek to improve their environmental footprints while meeting social criteria.

So it made sense for us to include a "sustainability prize" in Stock Market Learning, to raise our customers’ awareness of the sustainable investment theme which, fortunately, is gaining traction in the business and financial world.