Maria Miller & Lily O’Connor from Presentation College Carlow beat competition from over 2,000 students to represent Ireland in the European finals of Europe’s largest financial education competition
15th April 2024 – Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), with the support of the Business Studies Teacher’s Association of Ireland (BSTAI), is delighted to announce that the first female duo will represent Ireland at the European Money Quiz 2024 in Brussels. Maria Miller and Lily O’Connor, 15-years of age and third-year students at Presentation College Carlow, beat competition from over 2,000 students across the country in the Irish finals of the quiz and are heading to Brussels for the European Championships on the 19th of April.
The European Money Quiz is Europe’s largest financial education competition which aims to promote financial literacy among students aged between 13-15 year olds. The live European finals, hosted by the European Banking Federation in Brussels, will see teams of two from 30 countries play directly against each other in a bid to become European champions and share in a prize fund of €5,000 for their school. This year Queen Mathilde of Belgium will attend the finals and participate in the awards ceremony. Since the inauguration of the quiz in 2018 Ireland has performed exceptionally well, securing a podium spot in the top three European teams on three occasions.
Cathy Bryce, President of BPFI and AIB’s Managing Director of Capital Markets stated: “We were delighted to have more than 2,000 students from over 100 schools across Ireland take part in this year’s Irish finals of the European Money Quiz, so Maria and Lily did exceptionally well to get through to the European finals. It is the first time that Ireland is represented by a female duo and I hope this will inspire more girls to take part in the quiz next year and demonstrate their business and finance knowledge. The European Money Quiz is a really important annual event on our calendar to promote financial education and BPFI is delighted to be sponsoring the winners to go to Brussels and take part in the European Championship in person.”
Ray Murray, Principal of Presentation College, Carlow added: “Understanding and learning about money and finance is really important for young people. It is something we strongly encourage within the school and our students really enjoy taking part in the live online Irish finals of the quiz which brings financial education to life, as well as bringing a bit of fun and excitement to the classroom. We are tremendously proud of Maria and Lily’s success and the entire school community is fully behind them as they head to the finals in Brussels.”
The European Money Quiz is part of European Money Week (EMW), a joint initiative between the European Banking Federation and 30 banking associations across Europe – including BPFI, which aims to boost financial literacy levels and raise awareness on the benefits of financial education.
Further details are available on the BPFI website at www.bpfi.ie/European-money-quiz.
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Note: Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) represents the banking, payments and fintech sector in Ireland. Together with its affiliates, the Federation of International Banks in Ireland, and the Fintech & Payments Association of Ireland, BPFI has over 125 member institutions and associates, including licensed domestic and foreign banks and institutions operating in the financial marketplace here.
