CIRANO and the Autorité des marchés financiers are proud to announce the conclusion of a partnership agreement that will promote FinÉcoLab educational games over the next five years.

The FinÉcolab educational games have been developed at CIRANO since 2013, by a team under the direction of Claude Montmarquette and Marine de Montaignac. The development of these games was made possible thanks to the main support of the Autorité des marchés financiers and additional backing from fourteen organizations brought together by Finance Montréal.

These games, based on experimental economics, aim to improve the knowledge and skills of Secondary V and CEGEP students in economics and finance. These learning activities are particularly well suited for the recently introduced financial education course in the high school curriculum. By offering these activities to their students, teachers lead them to discover economic and financial concepts in real-life situations. FinÉcoLab is based on an original and innovative idea: introducing students to economics and finance through experimentation rather than theory. The FinÉcoLab games and supporting teaching materials are available free of charge on the Internet.

The new partnership concluded with the Autorité des marchés financiers, through its Strategic Financial Education, Outreach and Research Partnerships Program, aims to maintain the promotion of FinÉcoLab games in the Quebec school network, including communications at the English-speaking school network. The project specifically concerns the use of eleven games and their educational guides in financial education courses.

"More than ever, we need to work together to advance financial education. This strategic partnership with CIRANO is a good example of what we can do together and will allow a large number of young Quebecers to better understand the economic environment in which they will soon have to make important financial decisions," said Louis Morisset, President and CEO of the Autorité des marchés financiers.

"The transfer of knowledge and the improvement of the level of economic and financial literacy are at the heart of CIRANO's mission. This partnership with the AMF will help to pursue this mission by ensuring the continuity of the FinÉcoLab project, the only French-language educational web platform in the world that allows people to learn concepts related to economics and finance based on behavioral economics. This partnership will make it possible to extend the appropriation of these educational and pedagogical games throughout the public school network," added Nathalie de Marcellis-Warin, President and CEO of CIRANO.

Throughout this new project, CIRANO will aim to constantly expand the number of schools and students who benefit annually from these modern financial education tools. In particular, the goal is to have these pedagogical games adopted by the Quebec public school network.

To find out more
Visit the FinÉcoLab Website

About FinÉcoLab
FinÉcoLab is a CIRANO activity that receives support for this financial education project from numerous partners: the Autorité des marchés financiers, its main partner, and a group of 14 public and private organizations brought together by Finance Montréal.

About the Autorité des marchés financiers
The Autorité des marchés financiers oversees the Québec financial sector to maintain its orderly operation. Together with its partners, it ensures that Quebecers are provided with tools and programs adapted to their needs and to economic, demographic and technological issues.

For more information:

• Paul Bourget, Project Director, CIRANO
  bourgetp@cirano.qc.ca or 514 985-4000, ext. 3006
• Sylvain Théberge, Director of Media Relations, Autorité des marchés financiers
  sylvain.theberge@lautorite.qc.ca or 514-395-0337, ext. 2341