SUPPORT from employers is crucial in promoting financial health among Malaysian workers, including teachers, says Financial Industry Collective Outreach (Finco) chief executive officer Clare Walker.
“Employers are uniquely placed to support employees’ financial well-being, with timely information and guidance, particularly for young employees,” she stressed.
“Providing a living wage and opportunities to upskill helps ensure young workers can make ends meet,” she added.
Walker was responding to recent reports that Malaysians aged 35 to 44 formed the largest share of bankruptcy cases in the country, accounting for 39.61% of all instances recorded between 2021 and December 2025.
The reports also highlighted that Selangor teachers recorded the highest incidence of bankruptcy among civil servants.
Walker recommended collaborating with subject matter experts to integrate structured financial education into onboarding modules and providing access to debt counselling.
This, she said, can help young people not only improve financial resilience but also normalise discussions about money matters.
Acknowledging that teaching personal finance can be challenging, Walker said by giving teachers access to reliable and accurate information, and the means to talk about sensitive topics such as debt and risk in a sympathetic and practical manner, they can become positive financial role models for their students and communities.
“This then offers students the opportunity to build a stronger personal financial management foundation, before they leave school and enter the workforce,” she said.
Ongoing initiatives
According to Walker, Finco has collaborated with the Financial Education Network and the Education Ministry to develop a bespoke financial education initiative called Train-the-Trainer: Personal Financial Management for Teachers.
Finco, supported by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), is a collaborative initiative by Malaysian financial institutions that helps underprivileged children and youth achieve their goals through programmes in English proficiency, life skills and financial literacy.
FEN is an inter-agency platform, co-chaired by BNM and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), committed to improving Malaysians’ financial literacy.
“Six modules, developed and delivered by subject experts from Finco, BNM, the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK), SC and the Employees Provident Fund have been used to train 209 Education Ministry trainers and lecturers – at least one in each district across Malaysia,” she said.
She added that initial results among the pilot participants are showing promising behaviour changes, with a 24% increase in those saving more than 10% of their income and a 27% increase in those saving or investing more than 10% of their income specifically for retirement.
Starting early
Amid these measures, Walker highlighted the importance of starting financial education before students even enter the workplace.
“Young people, from secondary schools to tertiary institutions, frequently access various e-commerce and other digital platforms, making them prone to ‘painless’ overspending from an early age.
“More timely financial education needs to happen before they even enter the workforce, so they can learn to use buy now, pay later options and other sources of credit responsibly,” she said. — By JAAYNE JEEVITA
