The Social Work of the CECA Sector has been Strengthened by Legislative Changes in the Last Decade

Alberto Aza, spokesperson for CECA, reflects on the important role that the Social Work has developed during the last decade. The Social Work of the CECA sector, driven by foundations and savings banks, carries out its activities aiming to encompass all segments of the population, focusing particularly on the most vulnerable groups and those in greatest need.

From 2014 to 2023, the investment has been 7.823 billion euros, with 930,002 activities developed and an average annual beneficiaries of 31,632,304. In the last fiscal year, the investment has risen to 851.12 million euros, with 80,964 activities and a total of beneficiaries of 30,322,713.

The Social Work of the CECA sector has emerged strengthened from the legislative changes of the last decade. Undoubtedly, the most significant being Law 26/2013, of December 27, on Savings Banks and Banking Foundations, which has provided explicit recognition to the Social Work as a hallmark of the entities integrated today in CECA. The new law constituted a structural reform of the savings banks that enabled their integration into larger and more solvent groups, placing the new banks on equal footing with other credit entities regarding their recapitalization capacity, access, and scrutiny of the securities market. At the same time, the Social Work was preserved through foundations that became professional managers of this work. That is, the new legal framework established the necessary legal mechanisms to ensure the continuity of the Social Work without relinquishing its historical mission: to generate opportunities for progress for individuals while simultaneously combating inequality and social exclusion.

On this and much more, our spokesperson, Alberto Aza, speaks in an interview in the magazine Buen Gobierno de El Economista.