We could say that the most common compliment paid to millennials today is that they are digital. But digitalization does not understand generations or ages, but rather learning and adaptation. Like any great transformation, it is a process that can bring enormous benefits and opportunities, in which it is necessary to work to build a future that guarantees adequate levels of equality and social welfare. For millennials… and everyone else.
An increasingly digitalized society can mean an improvement in our quality of life, but to achieve this we must be able to assimilate the whirlwind of changes and the dose of uncertainty that always comes with the new. That is why we must join efforts to help all people make the most of digital development, which involves becoming aware of the risks it entails and thus being able to avoid them.
This coming Monday marks Financial Education Day in Spain and it is no coincidence that this year’s central theme is “Connected with Digitalization.” Whoever conceived it understands the importance of technology in our daily lives and the need to make proper use of it in order to better manage our personal finances.
A G20 study published a year ago, focused on digitalization and financial education, assessed the advantages of technology for achieving more innovative and practical training in managing our economic resources. It also emphasized that for digitalization to serve to connect us all and leave no one behind, it is essential to acquire some digital skills. Because when financial education and digital education go hand in hand, they become more powerful.
In Spain, where financial inclusion is virtually total, the digital transformation of the banking sector translates into better accessibility and transparency in the provision of services and products, which reinforces the already high level of competition in the market. The new digital financial ecosystem focuses on the customer experience with more personalized products adapted to individual needs, with increasingly intuitive digital applications, and with increasingly convenient, efficient, and flexible operations. However, the fact that applications are easy to use does not mean that we are more skilled in managing our personal finances. Do millennials, simply because they were born with a smartphone nearby, know how to better control their budgets, or do they even know what a budget is? The ease of use of digital applications can bring out a sense of overconfidence in consumers, especially among younger people, who, accustomed to operating in the digital world, control the applications but, in many cases, lack knowledge of basic household economics concepts and, even more so, lack understanding of how financial products work. Training in finance is a necessity. It protects us against quick, impulsive, and poorly considered decisions that a world like today’s, dominated by immediacy, can lead us to—which is undoubtedly one of the greatest risks that digitalization brings, in addition to cybersecurity risks and the misuse of personal data.
AEB promotes numerous cybersecurity campaigns that inform about the existence of various cybercrimes and the practices that should be followed to avoid becoming a victim of this type of crime. Cybersecurity is also present in the annual financial education program ‘Your Finances, Your Future’ promoted by the AEB Foundation together with Junior Achievement, thanks to volunteer banking employees who conduct workshops in schools throughout Spain. The program is aimed at students aged 13 to 15, ages at which they are already fully familiar with the digital environment. Students, in addition to learning to create a balanced budget and becoming aware of the importance of saving to become responsible consumers, learn about the opportunities and risks of digital banking: they reflect on the possible consequences of irresponsible use of new technologies and learn to detect some of the most widespread forms of cybernetic financial fraud today.
Complete digital transformation requires a significant dedication of resources and the voluntary participation of all economic agents. Constant support from authorities and the private sector, including families, is necessary to promote financial and digital education both from an early age and for older adults. Thus, millennials and everyone else will be increasingly prepared to enter this new digital era with firm steps.
Conchita Morán, Sustainability Department of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB)
José Luis Martínez, AEB spokesperson
