A fun way to learn about the stock market

In keeping with our goal of increasing financial literacy among young people, and given our strategy of supporting our customers, we decided to participate in this year’s stock market simulation competition.

We already had more than 1.000 participants in previous competitions and would like to keep the participation rate high as well this year. The main idea is to familiarise our customers, especially the younger generation, with the stock markets through the "learning by doing" concept. At the same time, and given the current situation on the financial markets (very low interest rates, continued upward trend in the international markets, etc.), we see this competition as an opportunity to encourage our customers to invest, whether through our S-Invest solution or via S-Net, our online banking app.

The name

For starters, we decided to use the English name for the competition. We went from "Planspiel Börse" to "Stock Market Learning", which is more modern and self-explanatory.

The last time we participated was in 2018 and, at that time, we focused mainly on secondary schools and teachers, who often included this competition in their economics course materials, as well as university students. This year, we are making the experience available to a much wider target: all Axxess customers.

The entry process

Initially, you had to be part of a group to enter, but now the competition is open to our Axxess customers, meaning young people aged 18 to 30. The GDPR (which makes it difficult to register as a group) and the current health crisis forced the "Deutscher Sparkassen Verband (DSV)", which runs the competition, to make some changes from previous years. Each participant can now enter online on an individual basis using a unique code.

This means a participant can log on anytime and is constantly updated (in real time) on his portfolio’s performance. We also created a dedicated web page https://www.spuerkeess.lu/en/stock-market-learning/, which will come online as soon as the competition begins. This is where young (and not-so-young) people can find information about the contest, as well as general information about how the stock markets works. The goal is to increase our customers’ financial literacy and provide them with basic information about the stock markets.

It is so important to us that we included it in our by-laws. Free entry applies not just to our Axxess customers but also to our Spuerkeess employees.

Registration is online with a unique code that each applicant receives via an S-Net message or that is sent after he expresses an interest in entering.

We have split the competition into two parts so there are two types of prizes up for grabs.

For the general competition, the participants who grew their portfolio the most (from an initial (virtual) investment of EUR 50.000) at the end of the exercise will win the following prizes:

First prize: EUR 1.000

Second prize: EUR 500

Third prize: EUR 250

Sustainability prize: We will also give the participant who earns the most money from CSR securities a EUR 500 gift voucher from the "Naturata" shops. 

By the way, the prizes to be won are real, not virtual euros.😉

Climate change and environmental degradation are highly topical issues. This is true in general, but also in the world of finance.

Since 2006, we have signed on to several charters as part of our ambition to be a socially and environmentally responsible bank.

In 2019, we also launched the Lux-Bond Green investment fund and, in 2020, Lux-Equity Green. They both invest in green securities or in projects that seek to improve their environmental footprints while meeting social criteria.

So it made sense for us to include a "sustainability prize" in Stock Market Learning, to raise our customers’ awareness of the sustainable investment theme which, fortunately, is gaining traction in the business and financial world.