The Bank is participating in this OECD initiative with more than 80 activities across Spain through the Finance for Mortals programme, in collaboration with the Santander Financial Institute (SANFI).

From 20 to 26 March, educational centres, NGOs and associations with a particular focus to financially vulnerable groups will receive educational financial sessions, thanks to volunteer trainers from Santander.

Finance for Mortals is recognised by the Bank of Spain and the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) as one of the country's most significant programmes in financial education.

Madrid, 16 March 2023.
From Monday until 26 March, Banco Santander will be participating in Global Money Week (GMW), which the OECD promotes around the world, and which, this year, bears the slogan: 'Plan your money, plan your future'.The aim of GMW is to raise awareness of the importance of basic training in finance and to ensure that young people from an early age obtain the knowledge and necessary skills to make sound financial decisions throughout their life.

To this end, the Bank, in collaboration with the Santander Financial Institute (SANFI), has prepared a broad programme with more than 80 financial education sessions, multimedia content on personal and sustainable finances, and a competition to test the basic financial knowledge of its participants: the ‘FxM Sustainable Challenge'. They will achieve this through the Finance for Mortals, programme, driven by Santander in Spain for over ten years to foster financial inclusion and culture in society, especially among those groups that are most vulnerable.

The training sessions will address topics such as sustainability in finance, learning to manage your finances, ways to save money, cybersecurity, digital banking, being self employed and being smart when it comes to borrowing. There will be other activities on top of this, such as a visit to Santander's historical archive (Archivo Histórico Banco Santander) by young students undergoing vocational training; a live webinar, 'Committed to sustainable finances,' hosted by Marta Aisa, head of Responsible Banking at Santander Spain; and a financial education session on cryptoassets for university students, led by Coty de Monteverde, head of Crypto & Blockchain at Banco Santander.

What's more, starting from Friday, 17 March, and over the course of Global Money Week, we'll see the launch of the 'FxM Sustainability Challenge' for all those who wish to test their level of knowledge on sustainable finances and want to enter a prize draw for an electric scooter.

Banco Santander continues to get behind financial inclusion under its Responsible Banking agenda and as per its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations to be achieved by 2030.

Its objective is to financially empower 15 million people across the world between 2019 and 2025 through 3 key lines of action: helping people with no prior banking experience to access basic financial services, offering specific products tailored to individuals or SMEs with low income or experiencing financial hardship, and fostering and driving financial education. In just 4 years, 2019–2022, the Bank has achieved the inclusion of 11.8 million people.

In Spain, Santander has helped almost 120,000 people access and use basic financial services through cash payment and services platforms in communities with low-density populations, and has provided financial education to more than 82,500 people.

UCEIF Foundation and SANFI

The University of Cantabria Foundation for the Study and Research of the Financial Sector (UCEIF) (www.fundacion-uceif.org), was created in 2006 as a collaboration between the University of Cantabria and Banco Santander, through its department, Santander Universities (www.santander.com/universities), with the aim of becoming a national and international benchmark for the generation and transmission of financial knowledge.

Santander Financial Institute (SANFI) was founded in 2012 as a base for the UCEIF Foundation. The Instituto Universitario en Banca y Finanzas (University Institute of Banking and Finances) was established 2021, and operates by training researching and transferring knowledge in the financial sector, its objective being to be an international leader in this field.