Six international institutions are taking part in this initiative, promoted by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme, which will run until 29 October 2021.

Volunteer employees from Santander will take part as trainers in three of the five days of the course on online banking, online security and data protection, and alternative payment methods.

The bank provided financial education to more than 700,000 people in 2020 through the various programmes it promotes in this regard in the countries in which it operates, almost 30% more than the previous year.

Madrid, 20 October 2021 – PRESS RELEASE
Thanks to an agreement with the University of Alicante (UA), Banco Santander has joined the DEFINE project, which is co-financed by the European Union Erasmus+ Programme. Under the title “Digital financial education for seniors: interactive scenario game solutions to increase the online financial literacy of seniors”, DEFINE seeks to improve seniors’ skills in dealing with online financial management services. This will help them to increase their active participation in financial markets, reduce participation costs by improving their online IT skills and improve their investment opportunities and understanding, with the aim of strengthening their skills and preventing them from making mistakes in their online transactions and being victims of fraud.

Seven other partner institutions from Austria, Denmark, Spain, Italy and France are also involved in the project, which was launched in January 2020. To date, various training actions have been carried out within the DEFINE programme, which ends in March 2022.

At present, about 30 students are participating in “Digital financial literacy for seniors”, a pilot course divided into five modules that will be implemented until 29 October at the University of Alicante’s headquarters in Alicante.

The course is led by five of the University’s professors and two volunteer employees from Banco Santander who will collaborate in the training for the modules on online banking, online security and data protection, and alternative payment methods. 

In addition to providing volunteer trainers, Banco Santander has designed a navigable demo of its app (web/mobile) so that students can learn about and evaluate the usefulness, possibilities and security of these online tools without having to install it themselves.

Experts agree that both digitalisation and education in basic finance will be at the heart of the strategies used to promote financial inclusion, which directly contributes to seven of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

In this context and in line with its responsible banking objectives, Banco Santander considers it a priority to achieve full inclusion of all financially vulnerable groups in order to ensure that nobody is left behind, including seniors.

According to José Miguel Lorente, Banco Santander’s head of institutions in the Valencia region and a volunteer trainer for DEFINE, “new technologies, especially mobile phones, are increasingly becoming points of interaction between customers and financial institutions. At this workshop, we showcase the possibilities that online banking offers, sharing experiences and best practices with people who were already users of digital banking at a basic level. So far, we have taught them how to use both general and more advanced operational functionalities to give them greater security and comfort. We will continue over the next few days with cybersecurity and alternative payment methods.”

More than one million digital senior customers

Banco Santander, which provided financial education to more than 700,000 people in 2020 through its various programmes in this field, already has 1.1 million digital customers over the age of 65 in Spain, representing 52% in this age range, a 10% increase in the last year.

Financial education is a fundamental pillar in its responsible banking strategy and its firm commitment to the financial empowerment of individuals; last year alone it provided access to basic financial services to more than 3.5 million people, and helped them to obtain tailor-made credit at a time of economic difficulty and to benefit from essential financial training. The goal of Banco Santander – recently recognised by Euromoney magazine as the best bank in the world in financial inclusion – is to financially empower 10 million people between 2019 and 2025, and to date it has already achieved 60% of this target.