President Lagarde launches EuroSteps Walking Challenge at event promoting women’s financial literacy

2 March 2026

• EuroSteps Walking Challenge: pan-European initiative to promote financial literacy
• Panel discussion with ECB President Christine Lagarde; Yannis Stournaras, Governor of the Bank of Greece; Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank; and Tabea Bucher-Koenen, Co-Director of the Mannheim Institute of Financial Education; moderation by Patrick Jenkins, Chair of the Financial Times’ Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign
• Central bank financial literacy network renews commitment to implement targeted actions for women and focus on impact measurement

The European Central Bank (ECB) today hosted an event to mark International Women’s Day, addressing financial literacy with a special emphasis on the gender gap.

“Financial literacy shapes choices across an entire lifetime. And right now, too many women are making those choices without the knowledge and the know-how they need,” ECB President Christine Lagarde told attendees. “Closing this gap matters because it empowers women to take control of their financial lives.”

President Lagarde’s opening remarks were followed by a panel discussion with Yannis Stournaras, Governor of the Bank of Greece; Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank; and Tabea Bucher‑Koenen, Co‑Director of the Mannheim Institute of Financial Education. The discussion focused on the role of financial literacy in strengthening economic resilience, as well as ways to address the gender gap across Europe. It was moderated by Patrick Jenkins, Chair of the Financial Times’ Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign.

The Eurosystem today also launched a new joint initiative: the EuroSteps Walking Challenge.

EuroSteps is designed to fit naturally into women’s everyday lives: on their phones and on the move. It combines physical activity – like daily step counting – with bite-sized lessons so that learning about money feels simple, relevant and unintimidating. The initiative aims to promote financial literacy in an engaging and accessible way across all euro area countries.

Registration for the challenge opens today. The step counting challenge itself will start on 1 April and last for four weeks; all participants will be in with a chance of winning a prize. Participants can join at any time and, from 1 April onwards, will receive two to three short notifications per week in their own language. Each notification contains simple financial education content as well as links to existing national programmes and trusted resources.

Building on the commitments made at last year’s International Women’s Day event, the Eurosystem has established a central bank financial literacy network to develop a comprehensive and harmonised dataset on financial literacy in Europe, as well as a shared repository of initiatives and resources.

For more information on financial literacy in Europe, please visit our website.

Photos of the event can be found on our press photos web page.

For media queries, please contact Mila Quacquarelli, tel.: +49 170 632 4603.