The MAIAs – NEW GLOBAL FINANCIAL LITERACY BODY LAUNCHES, DESIGNED TO SPREAD BEST-PRACTICE IDEAS WORLDWIDE

The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards (The MAIAs) today announced it has secured initial sponsorship from influential financial players, as the body heads towards the inaugural round of award-giving this spring.

Conceived to ‘Make Money Better’, the MAIAs is a new entity focused on raising awareness of the many problems poor financial literacy causes, while also finding the best solutions from all over the world – and shining a light on them via a high-profile awards system judged by leading academics, NGOs, journalists, influencers, and asset managers.

Early sponsors announced today for the 2022 inaugural MAIAs include Lanturn, a boutique fintech firm specializing in corporate and fund services; Endowus, a Singapore-headquartered digital wealth platform; Bitmex Academy, a multimedia crypto education platform and Albizia Capital, a fund management company.

Investor and industry veteran Michael Gilmore, founder of The MAIAs commented, “There’s currently no ecosystem for financial literacy – people are working on this worldwide, but with little idea of what anyone else is doing, what’s good or what’s dangerous.

“We believe the MAIAs can be like a pin in a pinwheel, connecting the work being done to the growing need for it, making things spin, making money better. We couldn’t be more grateful to our inaugural sponsors for their show of support and look forward to building things out, together,” added Gilmore.

The global pandemic recently highlighted the fragility of many people’s finances (a third of people worldwide have less than a seven-day financial cushion). This shocking reality, coupled with the fact that even in a comparatively financially literate country like the UK, nine out of ten people say their education failed to prepare them to handle money, underlines the urgent need for greater money awareness, and inclusion.

Joining the MAIAs crusade as judges for the inaugural 2022 awards are a host of luminaries from the field, including Patrick Jenkins, deputy editor of the Financial Times, Selina Flavius, award-winning financial influencer and author of “Black Girl Finance”, David Fernandez, Director of the SKB Institute for Financial Economics at Singapore Management University and Samuel Rhee, CIO of Endowus, the fastest-growing digital wealth platform in Asia.