Financial and Digital Education: Key to Inclusion

We live in a world undergoing constant transformation. A dynamic that demands individuals to continually adapt, requiring a capacity for continuous learning to acquire the necessary skills to navigate their environment. In the same vein, over the past two years, the pandemic has intensified the way citizens manage their finances and has fostered new habits among consumers, based on digitalization. However, in some everyday actions—such as performing a banking transaction or doing the weekly shopping—there are ongoing educational deficits that need to be improved.

The main financial supervisors and the banking sector agree on the need to enhance financial education levels to ensure that all individuals acquire the essential knowledge and tools to manage their finances responsibly and informedly. There are many initiatives that the sector undertakes to raise the understanding of financial reality among the population and to alleviate these deficits. Among them, the Banco de España and the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) commemorate each year the Financial Education Day, which today celebrates a new edition. This initiative, promoted under the National Financial Education Plan launched in 2008, has been joined from the very beginning by the CECA sector—CaixaBank, Kutxabank, Cajasur Banco, Abanca, Unicaja Banco, Ibercaja Banco, Caixa Ontinyent, Colonya Pollença, Cecabank, their foundations, CECA, and Funcas—with the development of activities throughout Spain aimed at all segments of the population, which aim to improve the financial culture of society and raise awareness about its importance in managing personal finances adequately. The commitment of the CECA sector is evidenced by the 4.298 million euros allocated to promote and enhance financial education during 2020 and 2021. Of this investment, 3.025 million euros come from the Funcas Educa Program, promoted by CECA and Funcas for the fourth consecutive year, which has resulted in 7,918 activities aimed at all groups, especially the most vulnerable.

This year’s slogan, “Education for Safer Finances,” emphasizes the need to improve the financial and digital health of all individuals, focusing on the importance of training and information to protect finances and personal data against attempts at fraud and cyber scams. Undoubtedly, the link between financial literacy and the digital environment has reinforced messages that help citizens manage their finances, as reflected in various initiatives developed by the CECA sector. Among them, the portal “Nuestros Datos Seguros,” which provides knowledge and confidence regarding data, privacy, and online security, explaining trends simply to assist in everyday decision-making; and the “Aula Financiera y Digital” platform, an initiative of the banking sector—driven by CECA, AEB, and UNACC—that, taking up the mantle of the Strategic Protocol to Reinforce the Social and Sustainable Commitment of Banking, gathers the measures of financial entities and their associations concerning financial and digital education. A key initiative considering that “the EU’s goal for 2030 is for 80% of adults to have basic digital skills, whereas currently, 42% of Europeans lack them, according to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) of the European Commission,” as stated by Alberto Aza, spokesperson for CECA, in a column in Cinco Días.

For the entities associated with CECA, financial education is a priority and a social necessity that the sector has been working on for decades. Many years ago, they embarked on an exciting challenge: to bring financial education to all layers of society. Evidence that this is one of the main axes of activity representing their commitment to sustainability and collective well-being, the CECA sector has recently signed an agreement with the Asociación Seniors Españoles para la Cooperación Técnica (SECOT) to develop programs and in-person workshops on financial education, reducing the digital divide among older adults and those in rural areas. Additionally, a year ago, CECA launched the “Financial Education for Athletes” project in collaboration with its Social Action and Financial Education ambassador, Ona Carbonell. More than 500 athletes from different federations, including the Consejo Superior de Deportes, have enrolled in this course to improve their financial knowledge.

In the framework of Financial Education Day, the entities associated with CECA will carry out various activities. It is worth highlighting the “Report on Educational Activities of the CECA Sector for 2020 and 2021,” a reference source of information on programs and projects, and the “Survey on Youth and Financial Education” by Funcas, coordinated by its Director of Social Studies, Elisa Chuliá.