For almost a decade, Banco Santander has been promoting Finance for Mortals, one of its main financial education initiatives, developed in collaboration with the Santander Financial Institute (SANFI) and the University of Cantabria. The programme is aimed at financially vulnerable groups, such as children and young people, the elderly, social entrepreneurs or communities that for various reasons are at risk of exclusion.
Finance for Mortals is one of the main tools that Santander has to meet one of its main objectives of responsible banking: financial inclusion in all the countries where it operates. Its goal is to achieve the financial empowerment of 10 million people by 2025, through three main lines of action: access to basic financial services; financing for SMEs and entrepreneurs with difficulties in accessing credit through initiatives such as microfinance; and financial education.
This year, the programme has taken a key step forward by bringing the project closer to people deprived of their liberty. Through ‘Finances for Mortals, Educational Justice’, professionals from the entity give training sessions in the prisons of Valencia, El Dueso (Cantabria) and Burgos, thanks to the collaboration agreement reached between Banco Santander, Penitentiary Institutions (IIPP) and the UCEIF Foundation.
“This is an inclusive and necessary project to contribute to the progress of people, which is a further step in the commitment that maintains the Santander with financial inclusion and to ensure that those who need it better understand the current economy, to help them make the best decisions on how to manage their resources and contribute to the safety and security of their finances”, said Rocío Pazos, territorial director of the entity in Galicia, during one of the days that taught in the penitentiary center of Teixeiro, in La Coruña.
The sessions are attended by inmates who are performing productive workshops and can put into practice the knowledge acquired, as well as people who enjoy the third degree with prison permits and are in active search of employment. The workshops are developed in two sessions: the first day is dedicated to the possible job opportunities for participants and delves into the existing aid and benefits, job orientation, differences between being self-employed, self-employed or employed, or understanding a payroll and an invoice, among other topics. The second session, called Learning to get organised, focuses on basic financial products, the use of online banking, saving methods, debt and intelligent consumption, personal and family budgeting and debt management.
Immigrant women and groups at risk of inclusion
In addition, Banco Santander, together with the Miguel Castillejo Foundation and the UCEIF Foundation, signed an agreement last July for the implementation of financial education sessions through the Finance for Mortals programme, aimed primarily at immigrant women and other groups at risk of exclusion in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. The training sessions began in Cordoba, at the Palacio de las Doblas, given by volunteer employees of Banco Santander with the aim of providing basic financial knowledge.
Banco Santander and Edelvives Foundation have also recently joined forces to promote and raise awareness of the importance of financial education in schools. The contents and training materials are specially designed for students, families and teachers and will be offered through the Edelvives Foundation website called Parents’ University, with the support of various face-to-face didactic activities run by the bank’s professional volunteers.
Another of the agreements to be highlighted is that between Santander and Plena Inclusion Spain, which has enabled the launch of the Finance Guide for Mortals, designed for all those people who have any kind of difficulty in understanding. This tool has been created using the easy reading method, a process for creating documents that are easier to understand, both through the text and the image, design and layout. The aim is that this guide will help to improve access to financial knowledge for people with intellectual disabilities, elderly people with cognitive impairment due to ageing and other possible groups such as immigrants with a poor command of the language, people with no education or who cannot read or write.
Financial inclusion, in the bank’s DNA
In addition to financial education, another of the bank’s lines of action is theSantander’s financial inclusion initiative is access to basic financial services and financing for SMEs and entrepreneurs who have difficulty accessing traditional credit. Santander has helped six million people with financial inclusion proposals since 2019.
In recent months, the group has strengthened its initiatives in all the countries where it operates to help people at risk of financial exclusion, giving them access to basic services and boosting entrepreneurship and employment in the face of the challenges arising from the pandemic. This ongoing work has been recognised by The Banker, the magazine of the Financial Times group, which singled out Santander as the most innovative bank in financial inclusion initiatives in its annual Innovation in Digital Banking awards.
“Financial empowerment can help lift people out of poverty while helping economic growth. We are making progress and are pleased that this has been recognised by The Banker, but we also recognise that there is still much to do and we are committed to playing our part,” said José Antonio Álvarez, CEO of Banco Santander.
The British publication highlights the agreement reached in Spain with Correos, which allows Santander to offer its cash delivery and withdrawal services through the 4,650 Correos service points. Thanks to this initiative, the bank has managed to increase its offer of basic financial services in 1,500 municipalities and has begun to deliver money to any municipality in Spain via postmen. This award also recognises other financial empowerment initiatives and programmes such as Superdigital, Tuiio and Prospera, developed in Latin American countries where the bank is present.
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