Last week was all about financial literacy. Experts from several institutions visited the schools, the students, and for the first time the municipalities. They say that only in this way will citizens' awareness of various financial instruments be raised, and many frauds will be prevented.

Darko Sazdov, a member of the Council of Experts of the Capital Financial Pension Insurance Supervision Agency, spoke about financial literacy in the part of the pension system in the show "Sloboden Pechat". He warns that the most important thing is for everyone to review their accounts regularly.

– The money in the private pension funds is the personal money of the members. There is a tool to track on a daily basis how much money you have. The member can be informed when the employer has paid him a contribution and be informed whether during the year there is a payment every month, and at the same time calculate whether the amount that he paid is an appropriate percentage, because it should be 6 percent of the agreed gross amount - the salary agreed upon with the employer. So, we can protect the money only with timely transparent information and only with a little additional commitment from each individual to monitor the financial situation - says Sazdov.

Since all money from the entire pension contribution of 18,8 percent goes to the state PIOSM Fund, and then 6 percent to private pension funds, we have witnessed in the past that there was money that did not reach the private account of the leaders in private pension funds. Also, despite the huge protection and many security mechanisms, it should always be taken into account that the world lives with cyber attacks.

– The members are the owners of the pension fund. But the funds are with the commercial banks. These are custodian banks, which are responsible for trading securities through them. But they are separated from the assets of the bank itself, because even in the case of bankruptcy and liquidation, those assets are not in the table. In addition, the securities that are traded and that are part of the portfolio of the pension funds, are located in the depositories of the state, and abroad in the clearing houses, which are sub-custodians of property - says Sazdov.

He says that in our pension system of capital funded pension insurance, we have more than 630.000 members and their funds are invested by the pension companies that are licensed by the Agency. We have 2,6 billion euros in the system, which is about 16 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

- At the meetings with the young people, as well as with those who are already members of the pension funds, there were a lot of questions that we answered and, simply, those who did not know, we got to know them, and those who at least knew a little, remembered and received more information about pension insurance. You know, pension insurance is a complex financial product. It is a long-term instrument - points out Sazdov.

The activities within the Financial Literacy Week were carried out by MAPAS, the National Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Insurance Supervision Agency and the Securities Commission.

Watch the entire VIDEO INTERVIEW above.