The banking sector's commitment to sustainable and inclusive development
Support the inclusion of citizens in economic processes and social contexts through financial education and savings initiatives. It is with this objective that banks strengthen their inclusion and sustainability activities for the various sections of the population.
This is what emerges from the latest BusinEsSG 2019 survey, which Abi dedicates to the integration of environmental, social and business management variables (ESG acronym from English Environmental, Social and Governance) in business strategies and decisions by banks . The aim of the survey is to represent the attention of banks to the impacts of their activities according to a multidimensional approach, which also takes into consideration the social and environmental dimension, and not only the economic one.
The survey, carried out on a sample equal to 87,4% of the total assets of the banking sector operating in Italy, shows that banks are increasingly interested in developing initiatives that can support sustainable and inclusive development as a growth engine. The diffusion of basic economic skills responds to citizens' financial culture needs. A commitment that Abi has also included in its statute, and which it also promotes through financial education activities and projects carried out throughout the national territory by the Foundation for financial and savings education (Feduf), born on the initiative of the same Abi.
For whom banks carry out financial education initiatives
According to the survey, almost all respondents (equal to 87,2% of the total assets of the Italian banking sector) implemented financial education initiatives, mostly addressed to the world of education, of any type or grade. In particular, the survey finds the involvement of students of secondary schools (for about 83% of the total assets of the banking sector), university students (about 75%), teachers (72%), and young people outside outside the school context (75%), in addition to the growing attention paid to students in the first school cycle.
Particular attention is also given to the training of foreigners (for almost 71% of the total assets of the sector) and to the education of the more adult population, also in view of the introduction of new technologies in banking services (over 85%).
In support of economic growth and innovation, for over 70% of the total assets of the banking sector, SMEs and the Third sector are the segments on which the initiatives are most concentrated.
