At the 3rd KOMVOS Annual Conference, the ENNOIA initiative explored where Greece stands in terms of household wealth and financial behavior compared with Northern and Southern Europe. Drawing on four waves of the ECB’s Household Finance and Consumption Survey, Professor Michael Haliassos highlighted a paradox: Greek households have low wealth and low saving capacity, yet show lower wealth inequality than both the North and the South. Greeks rely less on financial products and remain vulnerable to income shocks, making financial education increasingly important.
Policy recommendations focused on integrating financial education at all levels of schooling, providing tax incentives to encourage long‑term saving and retirement planning, and establishing strong regulatory frameworks for consumer protection. The private sector is expected to support these goals with simple and transparent financial products.
During the discussion panel chaired by Demie Goudoufa (AGM Strategy & Sustainability, National Bank of Greece), Professor Michael Haliassos, Konstantinos Zanetopoulos (Head of CSR, Accenture Greece), Professor Panayiotis Andreou (Cyprus University of Technology) and Kostas Faliagas (Co‑founder & CTO, Wealthyhood) emphasized how technology and AI can enhance financial literacy.
A research project led by Professor Andreou’s team and funded by ENNOIA aims to build an AI educational agent that provides personalized guidance based on long‑term financial behavior data. Accenture highlighted that financial decisions are shaped more by psychology than arithmetic, stressing the need for user‑friendly tools, automated saving routines and data‑driven insights. Wealthyhood presented its long‑term investing platform and the upcoming AI Investing Copilot to support responsible investment behavior. Cyprus’ national financial literacy strategy was also discussed, including its “Train the Trainer” model, demonstrating the importance of scalable human networks until AI tools become mainstream.
Beyond the panel discussion, ENNOIA also highlighted the initiative’s first‑year results, including the funding of three research projects, two ENNOIA Special Awards to start‑ups through the NBG Business Seeds Program and the Annual Innovation and Technology Competition, as well as the announcement of the upcoming Call for Research Proposals, to be launched in mid‑March 2026.
Stay tuned for more news and events.
