The banking sector continues to work on improving the attention and service it provides the elderly, both in person and digitally. So explains Julián, the star of the new initiative launched by the CECA sector.
Digitalisation brings significant benefits for both users and providers of digital services. For users, it offers them the opportunity to access a wider range of products and services in an agile, convenient and efficient manner; at the same time, it allows service providers to enrich the customer experience, expand the market and improve their operational efficiency. However, digitalisation also entails costs in terms of the digital divide for citizens who lack the necessary digital skills.
Making a transfer, completing a transaction, sending a Bizum or paying with a card, among others, are actions that a large part of society has already internalised. However, there are groups that find it harder to adapt to the digital world, and it is clear that part of the population, including the elderly, needs additional time to deal with this change. This is a universal challenge faced by all contemporary societies that permeates a multitude of sectors, not just the banking sector, and requires a comprehensive response from the public authorities, with the collaboration of the private sector where possible.
The banking sector is well aware that the elderly are a group that constitutes the backbone of society, who make valuable contributions to family and social well-being. This why it continues to work on improving the attention and service it provides to this group, both in person and digitally.
"Banking across generations"
One of the most important challenges facing the Spanish banking sector is to make the process of financial digitalisation inclusive. It is essential that the less digitalised groups, such as the elderly, acquire skills in this area to manage their finances. This is independent of the adoption of other specific measures such as promoting mobile branches, establishing financial agents or setting up specialised customer service hotlines.
In this new video, Julián is reunited with his granddaughter María, a bank employee, and we see that, despite the generation gap, both speak the same language. The two protagonists are positioned within the new paradigm defined by digitalisation: the grandfather has managed to gradually adapt to the new tools and channels, knowing how to take advantage of the services that banking offers him through these channels, and his granddaughter supports him throughout this process.
This is the second instalment of "Banking across generations", the new initiative launched by the CECA sector -CaixaBank, Kutxabank and Cajasur Banco, Abanca, Unicaja Banco, Ibercaja Banco, Caixa Ontinyent, Colonya Pollença and Cecabank- to look at how the banking sector has evolved in recent years to adapt to the digital transformation and the needs of its customers, with a special focus on the elderly.
The financial digitalisation of elderly customers
We live in a world that is riding the wave of transformation. An ocean that demands permanent adaptation from individuals, requiring them to have the capacity for continuous learning in order to acquire the necessary skills to enable them to function in their environment. In the same vein, "the EU's target for 2030 is for 80% of adults to have basic digital skills, when currently 42% of Europeans lack them", according to the European Commission's Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI).
The Funcas study Report on the Spanish banking sector in an environment of productivity changes, published in 2021, explains that the pandemic intensified the way in which citizens manage their finances and fostered new consumer habits based on digitalisation. Since the outbreak of the healthcare crisis, the financial digitalisation process has been accelerating, especially among the elderly. The percentage of elderly digital customers increased by 27.7%, making it the age group that has experienced the greatest increase in digitalisation. In addition, the existing financial digital divide by age was reduced: 52.2% of internet users over the age of 65 regularly use online banking. For this reason, credit institutions continue to implement formulas that enable this group to improve and facilitate their user experience on these digital channels, while striving to offer a quality service adapted to the needs of the elderly when they choose to go to the branch.
The commitment of the banking sector to financial inclusion
The Spanish banking system has the second largest branch network in the European Union, only behind France. In Spain, 98% of adults hold a bank account, according to the World Bank, and 98.6% reside in a municipality with access to banking services, according to the Report on Financial Inclusion in Spain prepared by IVIE, and the goal is to raise financial inclusion to 100% of the population.
The commitment of CECA's member entities to financial inclusion is both permanent and a priority. With the goal of contributing to accelerating progress towards an inclusive economy, for years now the CECA sector has been developing a wide range of measures, especially in rural areas and for groups at risk of exclusion. Longer opening hours, preferential treatment for the elderly in branches, telephone service with a personal agent, and offering financial and digital education programmes, are among the actions implemented to advance in the provision of personalised financial services to the elderly and to people with different abilities.
