Madrid, March 5, 2015. The President of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), José María Roldán, today presented the “Your Finances, Your Future” project, which has involved 16 banks, 400 volunteers and 6,500 schoolchildren, with the aim of promoting financial education among young people in Spain. This is the first time that AEB banks have acted jointly in this area, doing so through a programme intended to be long-lasting.
During the presentation of the programme, José María Roldán noted that AEB member banks have been very active for years in the field of financial education, although they have decided to join forces in this project to combine efforts and promote financial education in Spain. “AEB member banks want to contribute to this objective with their knowledge, their employees and their resources. With all modesty, we believe we can do something in this area, and therefore we have made our resources available to society.”
In the view of the President of AEB, the recent international financial crisis has highlighted worldwide the need to make progress not only towards more efficient regulation to protect consumers, but also towards improving users’ understanding of financial products, as these are becoming increasingly sophisticated. “The responsible use of financial services requires information, but also training”, since these are the two tools “that ensure a proper and beneficial relationship between the individual and financial service providers.”
To this end, AEB, with the collaboration of the Junior Achievement Foundation, has launched the programme “Your Finances, Your Future”, through which Spanish banks aim to promote the dissemination of basic economic and financial knowledge among students in the third and fourth years of compulsory secondary education (ESO). The programme will begin next week, coinciding with European Money Week, an initiative of the European Banking Federation in this area, which will take place simultaneously in 31 European countries.
In Spain, the programme will run from March 9 to 13 in more than one hundred schools across the country. The aim is to reach around 6,500 children aged 13 to 14, who will receive three non-consecutive sessions on basic economic and financial knowledge in a very engaging and participatory way. Teaching will be provided by 400 volunteers, all bank employees, including numerous chairmen and chief executive officers of the 16 banks* involved in the project.
José María Roldán expressed his gratitude to all the volunteers participating in the programme for the enthusiasm with which they have embraced it, and placed particular emphasis on highlighting that banks have extensive experience and a long tradition in developing financial education projects. Specifically, in recent years AEB member banks have launched more than 45 individual initiatives aimed at different groups: schoolchildren, young people, people at risk of social exclusion, the adult population and SMEs, among others.
In total, more than 2.7 million people have benefited from these programmes and received 8.5 million hours of training, thanks to the generous commitment of more than 4,000 volunteers. In addition to direct training, banks have developed web-based programmes that have reached an additional 3.4 million users.
Finally, the President of AEB invited attendees to learn about all the initiatives developed by the Association’s member banks in the area of Financial Education through a new section created on the AEB website (http://www.aebanca.es/es/educacionfinanciera/index.htm), which will go live today and will be updated regularly as banks carry out new actions in this area.
*The banks participating in the programme are: Banco Santander, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Banco Sabadell, Banco Popular, Bankinter, ING Bank, Barclays, Deutsche Bank SAE, Banca March, BNP Paribas, Societé Générale, Citibank, Bancofar, Banco Caminos, Self Bank, BCC-Cajamar.
