Objective of the working group
The objective of this working group is to bring together COFACE members and partners working on financial inclusion, to discuss EU developments and exchange information on key national trends. We will discuss relevant EU legislation, and collect information on challenges and good practices from our Member organisations. This is an internal meeting, with some guest speakers. The working language of the meeting is English.
EU context
Two main topics will be addressed during the meeting.
The first one concerns financial literacy. The European Commission published an EU Financial Literacy Strategy on 30 September 2025 (as part of its “savings and investments union” package). The strategy responds to low financial literacy levels in the EU (with fewer than 20% of citizens reporting a high level of financial literacy) and sets out EU-level actions to support Member States, including coordination and sharing of good practices, an EU-wide awareness campaign, targeted EU funding for initiatives and research, and monitoring of progress over time.
The second one is about the use of AI in finance. At the EU level, discussions continue to focus on how the EU AI Act will be implemented in practice, especially for use-cases relevant to financial services (general-purpose AI used in workflows, and high-risk systems such as creditworthiness checks). Key recent EU-level developments include the entry into application of GPAI obligations from 2 August 2025, the publication of the GPAI Code of Practice (10 July 2025) and Commission guidelines clarifying the scope of GPAI obligations (17 October 2025). Some relevant workstreams have been launched in 2025 such as consultations on copyright/text-and-data-mining opt-out protocols (open 1 Dec 2025–23 Jan 2026) and on a draft implementing act for AI regulatory sandboxes (open 2 Dec 2025–13 Jan 2026). In parallel, the Commission has also signalled potential simplification amendments to the AI Act as part of its Digital Omnibus/Simplification work (19 November 2025), which may impact consumers.
Registrations will open soon! Please note: this meeting is open to COFACE members only.
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Safe and inclusive activities in COFACE
As a European civil society network dedicated to the values of non-discrimination, gender equality and equality and social inclusion, COFACE and its representatives must practice its values within all operations and activities, both internally within the secretariat and the network and externally when representing COFACE. In 2025, COFACE Families Europe adopted a Common Reference Framework for safe an inclusive activities. You can read it here in English and French, and here in Easy-to-Read language.
Please know that we provide a safe space for all types of families without discrimination, and foster pluralistic discussions which acknowledge different viewpoints.
It is important that all participants in COFACE activities fully respect these values, acting respectfully, and contributing to creating a safe space for all.
If you wish to draw our attention to any difficult situations experienced during a COFACE activity, please write to us using the complaints form.
