Growing witH our stakeholders

The Intesa Sanpaolo Group is particularly involved in projects and initiatives to disseminate a knowledge of economic and financial issues, to make people more aware (especially the young generations) of their choices. Numerous initiatives have been adopted, without marketing purposes, levering the experience and advice of the Group's employees and specialists.

Since 2008, in order to encourage education opportunities for young people, in partnership with Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori, Intesa Sanpaolo has promoted the project “Cultura finanziaria a scuola: per prepararsi a scegliere” (Financial culture at school: get ready to make choices), which aims to provide useful knowledge to individuals on how to make reasoned decisions about their future. Dedicated to high school students, the project involved 500,200 students in 2016, over 19,000 classes and 7,500 teachers. The “Young Factor” project was launched in 2014. Involving Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit and Monte dei Paschi di Siena, until school year 2020-2021 this project will include a series of initiatives to encourage the highest level of economic and financial education in Italian students.

Museo del Risparmio

The Museo del Risparmio is a multi-media, interactive workshop set up in 2012 through 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 the 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 2015.

In association with member associations of the IFFM, a number of concrete proposals were made in 2016 (“Addressing the gender gap in financial literacy: a practical toolkit”) to encourage the greater involvement of women in financial issues. Other initiatives particularly for women were also been adopted, with the aim of breaking down the gender gap in financial education. These include “Rischiare? È un mestiere da donne” (Taking risks? It's a woman's job), designed to encourage debate among adult women on how to gain more awareness and promote saving. The new “It’s up to you” workshop for 11 to 14 year-olds, which is part of the same theme, helping youngsters to plan their personal finances without gender stereotypes.

Numerous initiatives were set up for all types and levels of schools, to give primary school children new learning opportunities and secondary school pupils the chance to meet affirmed business men and women and start-uppers, find out about international financial organisations and attend workshops to improve their relational skills.

The Museum also organised a number of events on financial education for young people, including: the conference “Il risparmio e la società giusta” (Saving and the right society), which was part of the investment management show Salone del Risparmio di Milano; the “No cash world” workshop, which was part of the No Cash Day and Salone dei Pagamenti di Milano; the conference “Denaro sporco: seguirne le tracce per la tutela della legalità” (Dirty money: tracking to protect legality) as part of the Forum on Fiscal and Economic Legality; the presentation of the book “Attenti a quei soldi” (Careful with that money) and children's workshops during the Turin Book Fair, in partnership with the Bank of Italy's Turin branch.

To mark National Saving Day, the Museum also promoted “Arte del Risparmio” (The Art of Saving) a week of events (exhibitions, workshops, etc.) for young children and adults, in association with Gallerie d'Italia and the Historical Archive of Intesa Sanpaolo.

Lastly, activities continued to develop new content, with the e-book “Le parole della finanza” (A finance glossary), which is the second of three publications that present comprehensible, concise explanations of the most common terms used concerning loans, finance and risk.

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Mettere in comune competenze

In partnership with the Consumer Associations, the project “Mettere in comune competenze” (Sharing Expertise) was launched in 2011 with the aim of improving mutual knowledge and collaboration skills to the benefit of customers and consumers. The project is divided into four activity sectors: training of Consumer Associations’ middle managers; development of a training plan targeted at all Intesa Sanpaolo employees; initiatives for the training and information of the local structures of the Associations; meetings with Intesa Sanpaolo Group top management and middle and junior managers of the Associations to combine skills and proposals in the main operating areas. Two cycles of seminars were held in 2016: the first, for national executives of Consumer Associations, provided an update on the banking/financial part and introduced insurance and welfare issues; the second, for local executives of Associations in Lombardy, was part of the local training project already trialled in Piedmont, with further information about credit products.

International banks also focussed on customers' financial education. Some of the most significant projects are listed below.

Alexbank opted to use the bank's Facebook page to publish 10 videos (“Ask the Expert with Alexbank”) explaining the main concepts of banking in a simple and attractive manner, as well as terms used in contracts, and products offered (credit or debit cards; current or savings accounts; fixed or floating rate interest, etc.).

The Slovakian bank VÚB Banka launched “iPoradca” (“iAdvisor”) in 2015, a programme that has a “Digital Ambassador” at branches to help customers understand the benefits of digital services and teach them to use these services in their day-to-day lives. In 2016, the project was expanded to include internal workshops to train all branch staff to become “digital ambassadors” for customers.

Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Albania, in association with Junior Achievement Albania (the business education programme) involved some staff members – who volunteered to use their expertise – in a project for secondary school pupils to develop business management skills. The Bank also signed a partnership agreement with the Faculty of Economics, to share experience and professional expertise in various projects with an academic background.