Financial education
A commitment that the Intesa Sanpaolo Group feels is particularly close to its area of expertise is the dissemination of knowledge of economic/financial issues, to make people more aware of their financial choices, with a particular attention on the new generations. There are many initiatives that are realized by making available, without commercial purposes, our experience and advice on the issues of savings management and family budget.
A special focus on young people
The Intesa Sanpaolo Group is actively involved in initiatives to develop and spread financial and economic knowledge, in particular to young people, ever more in need to make relevant choices for their welfare (pensions, investments, savings).
The attention that the world of finance addresses to this issue has led the Italian Banking Association to set up the "Foundation for Financial Education and Saving" (Fondazione per l'Educazione Finanziaria e al Risparmio).
Museo del Risparmio (Saving Museum)
The Savings Museum is a multi-media, interactive museum set up in 2012 by Intesa Sanpaolo. Dedicated to families, adults and children, the museum explains the concepts of saving and investing with a clear, simple language, to help improve financial literacy. In 2013 it founded the International Federation of Finance Museums (IFFM) in collaboration with the Museum of Global Finance in Beijing, the Museum of American Finance in New York and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center in Washington, and became co-chair in 2022.
In 2022, the Museo del Risparmio (MdR - Savings Museum) consolidated and expanded its financial education and economic citizenship initiatives to raise awareness among young people and adults about the importance of informed management of resources, whether financial or natural. By combining online, face-to-face and hybrid modes, a total of 46,000 users were reached, including about 38,000 students from schools of all levels of education.
The following were the main projects and events aimed at schools:
- PCTO (Italian acronym for Life Skills and Guidance Programmes) MdR: six ten-hour modules for upper secondary schools (Money; Find your way in economic information; Financial instruments; Financial crises; Ethical and sustainable business; Risk and planning);
- S.A.V.E. Virtual Tour: multimedia path dedicated to education on savings and sustainability, enriched in 2022 with the SAVE Ambassador initiative that allows students to develop active research projects on how to make their cities more sustainable from a social and environmental point of view;
- School for Life: project against dropping out from school, targeting lower secondary school pupils, developed by Intesa Sanpaolo and ELIS Consortium and with the contribution of the Museo del Risparmio, through 121 training sessions for students in central and southern Italy;
- ECO-Quiz: over 2,000 students took part in online lessons and a national quiz competition on savings and money themes on the occasion of the Turin Festival of Economics;
- “Il Mio posto nel Mondo” (My Place in the World): online festival dedicated to investing in human capital, organised in collaboration with the Museo Egizio, Lavazza Museum and Museo della Chimica;
- Sky is no Limit: an event dedicated to middle school pupils to promote greater awareness on the opportunities and challenges in the world of work.
The programme for adults offered various cycles of events:
- “Non più vittime” (No More Victims): a series of webinars in collaboration with Stati Generali delle Donne and CUG INPS to raise awareness against economic violence against women;
- “La cittadinanza attiva si impara in famiglia” (Active citizenship is learnt at home): a series of webinars in collaboration with Movimento Italiani Genitori to stimulate reflection on children’s education towards economic citizenship;
- “MICA il solito Lab” (Not the same old workshop): cycle of workshops for children and families to learn the basics on saving in a playful and fun way.
In 2022, 30 financial education training modules were provided to individuals in conditions of economic vulnerability, in partnership with the Turin Prison and various non-profit associations. The new items introduced in 2022 include: “FAI META. Cura il tuo denaro” (SCORE A TRY. Take care of your money), a modular programme on financial educational in 10 “lessons” targeting adults, the two podcasts “MICA solo parole” and “Casa Mica” and two educational fairy tales for children.
In October 2022, the Museo del Risparmio and the Bank of Italy, with the International Federation of Finance Museums, organised the international conference “Digitalization and Financial Awareness” with the participation of financial education experts from all over the world. FLITIN (Financial Literacy International Network) was also set up at the same time. This is a network of ambassadors from the Intesa Sanpaolo Group which aims to disseminate financial education in Italy, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Czech Republic, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Hungary.
The Museo del Risparmio and the Banks of the International Subsidiary Banks Division worked together on developing some informative initiatives for schools on the occasion of World Savings Day, which involved over 7,300 students from 55 schools in 7 different countries.
Other projects of financial education
Young Factor Project
The partnership with the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori (Young Publishers’ Forum) for the Young Factor project continued in 2022, with the aim of supporting young people’s critical reading and economic and financial literacy. The initiative succeeded in continuing with the project in schools, involving over 661,000 pupils.
In June 2022, an international conference was held in Milan, entitled “Young Factor: un dialogo tra giovani, economia e finanza” (Young Factor: a dialogue between young people and the economic and financial world). For the first time ever, the meeting brought together the Vice-President of the European Central Bank, six governors of central banks (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Holland), national and international bankers and 350 students from all over Europe with the aim of sharing views and ideas on how to enhance economic and financial literacy among young people and their sense of belonging to the European Union. At the end of the conference, the governors there and the president of the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori signed a document of understanding testifying to their commitment and willingness to promote this common project at an international level.
Financial education for consumer associations and the population
As part of relations with Consumer Associations, the "Mettere in comune competenze" project is active. It is born from the desire to transfer professional knowledge, in order to increase, on the one hand, the capacity for mutual collaboration and, on the other , the financial education of national and regional managers of consumer organizations, who are then able to actively support the citizens who turn to them in economic matters.
Periodically and upon request, we also hold webinars and courses in presence in the area together with the Associations, generally aimed at the most fragile segments of the population, on financial, banking and insurance and extremely current topics, such as over-indebtedness, fraud and scams.
The project, carried out in collaboration with the Impact Learning Structure, respects the initial division into four sectors which have evolved and adapted to new situations and needs.
"Formiamo l’Italia dei Consumatori", "Let's train Italy's consumers", a series of seminars on economic and financial topics. Intesa Sanpaolo specialists and Group managers have "guided" in recent years the central executives of the Associations in the banking economic world, from the ABC of markets and financial instruments to the fundamentals of risk and return, from managed savings to derivatives and the main analysis methodologies, to conclude with an in-depth analysis of the regulatory framework and mechanisms that led to the Subprime crisis, which evolved into the sovereign debt crisis.
After the first cycle of seminars, refresher sessions followed with insights into the international macro-economic scenario and the banking system, the insurance and social security sector, investment products, the world of online banking services, the digital economy, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
"Formiamo la banca dei consumatori" (Let’s train the consumers’ bank) aimed at promoting a training programme for all Intesa Sanpaolo employees in Italy with the intention to develop a greater knowledge of consumer culture and improving customer relations skills. The project involves the different training channels:
Classrooms
For the first time, on an experimental basis, some time slots, handled independently by a representative of one of the Associations that took part in the project, were included in the training courses for new recruits and for new managers. During the lessons the topics of consumer culture were covered and a lot of space was dedicated to debate and exchange of views on the protection of the client / consumer rights.
E-learning
Video-lessons held by Consumer Associations’ representatives on the guarantees of goods and services, with particular attention to rights and regulations were recorded. The video-lessons addressed, among others, the issues of out-of-court settlement, commercial practices and the Consumer Code.
Intranet
Web pages dedicated to the consumer culture were created and made accessible by all Bank staff. Among the various sections, as well as a brief history of consumerism, colleagues can find news from the Associations, the rules of the out-of-court settlement in Intesa Sanpaolo, as well as links to the sites of all the Associations that are part of the National Council of Consumers and Users at the Ministry of Businesses and Made in Italy.
Video. Clips were also created for Group employees with in-depth analysis of non-banking issues illustrated by delegates of consumer associations.
"Formiamo le regioni dei consumatori" (Let us train the consumers’ regions) aimed at increasing consumers’ banking and financial knowledge through the training of tutors and Associations managers at local level, thanks to the cooperation of the Intesa Sanpaolo’s experts. In the past a region of Italy was identified in which to organize a series of seminars on banking, financial and insurance issues. In 2021-2023, 9 webinars has been realized that have involved all italian regions. Since 2024, in addition to in-depth webinars, there have been meetings for macro-regions (North, Center and South of the country).
Thanks to the session "This is how we consumers see you", a fruitful listening was established by the top managers of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group to the requests brought forward by the Managers of the Associations, which gave rise to many initiatives, such as: the creation of an Agreement Framework for regulating joint activities, previewing products and services and joint training of conciliators.
Last updated 25 May 2022 at 13:25:31
