Visa Launches Video Game to Help Educate Youth on Balancing Savings with Prudent Spending to Reach Financial Goals

Game launch coincides with sponsorship of financial literacy panel at International Economic Forum of the Americas Conference of Montreal, underscoring Visa's ongoing commitment to educating Canadians on financial literacy

TORONTO, June 12, 2012 /CNW/ - Today, Visa Canada is launching a dynamic educational video game called Money Metropolis that teaches youth the basics of setting financial goals, earning, saving, and prudent spending. The game, which Visa will officially launch in both French and English during the Conference of Montreal for the International Economic Forum of the Americas, targets youth aged 7-12 and is a creative way to encourage kids to think about finances.

"Visa has created Money Metropolis to make learning about personal finances fun for kids," says Melissa Cassar, Head of Corporate and Public Affairs at Visa Canada. "Our aim is to continue creating educational tools and resources that engage kids, while also providing them with foundational personal finance skills that will benefit them for life."

As the 'financial literacy partner' of the Conference of Montreal for the International Economic Forum of the Americas, Visa's sponsorship will bring together a panel of financial literacy thought leaders to share, discuss and debate the best ways to promote financial literacy both among Canadians and around the world.

"Globally, Visa has long been committed to financial literacy, and we want to play an active role in fostering discussion with a view to helping all Canadians better understand how to manage their finances," says Cassar. "Sponsoring today's financial literacy panel and launching Visa's new educational video game Money Metropolis are two of the many ways in which we work locally towards achieving that goal."

The financial literacy panelists at today's conference include Yves Leterme, Deputy Secretary General, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); Damian Chan, International Director, Americas, Singapore Economic Development Board; and Terry Campbell, President, Canadian Bankers Association (CBA). The session will be moderated by Gary Rabbior, President, Canadian Foundation for Economic Education (CFEE) with introductory remarks by Visa.

As part of its ongoing goal to promote financial literacy in Canada, Visa Canada developed and maintains Practicalmoneyskills.ca, a site that provides consumers, parents, educators and students access to free educational resources, including cost calculators, budget templates, games, quizzes, and more. Practical Money Skills materials are also available online in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Punjabi and Chinese. Additionally, Visa Canada has worked with teachers to develop Choices & Decisions, a program available in both English and French that provides practical, ready-to-use, lesson plans for use in Canadian classrooms.

Financial education has been a global priority for Visa since 1995. In 2008, Visa made a commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative to share its financial literacy programs with 20 million people worldwide by May 1, 2013, and Visa is well on its way to achieving this milestone.

About Visa
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.