The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) has launched an initiative to gain support for a National Investment Day on May 15.

The BVB asks Romanians to sign an online petition at www.primainvestitie.ro to act as a starting point to get legislation in the works for a National Investment Day. A BVB press release calls the initiative "part of the most ambitious national project ever undertaken by a European stock exchange to increase financial literacy."

"The Bucharest Stock Exchange believes a national vision is required to improve on such an important aspect impacting every citizen," BVB CEO Ludwik Sobolewski said in the release. "Romania’s biggest issue does not reside in having little money, but in the aim and the extent we choose to have it allocated. Romania needs a National Investment Day to change for the better not only the mentalities but also the destinies of millions of its citizens."

Romania ranks last among the EU member states in financial literacy, with only 22 percent of its population having at least minimal financial knowledge, according to a Standard and Poor 2015 survey in the BVB press release.

"Just as Romania has the First House or the First Car programs, it should also have the First Investment program," BVB chairman Lucian Anghel said in a press release. "We need a National Investment Day."

During National Investment Day, BVB will host more than a dozen public events aimed to encourage financial literacy and investing.