Marking the World Savings Day, Banca Intesa, under the auspices of its parent Group Intesa Sanpaolo, is starting a program of financial education of children and young people entitled Know How to Save to be implemented this year in cooperation with the National Bank of Serbia (NBS).
The initiative, which will encompass more than 300 boys and girls in primary and secondary schools across Serbia, will be conducted during the Savings Week, from October 30 to November 3, with the aim of improving financial culture of the youth. „This year we are marking the World Savings Day through the launch of a program that aims to promote the importance of saving and acquiring healthy habits in managing finance from early age. The concept of saving rests on the principles of planning, responsibility and investing in future, and our intention is to introduce it primarily to children and young people because we believe that their education is a key precondition for the long-term development of the savings culture in our country“, said Draginja Đurić, President of Banca Intesa Executive Board. The program will include educational interactive workshops in primary schools in Novi Sad, Nis and Kragujevac to be held by Banca Intesa employees who will present the concept of saving to children in a simple and understandable way and teach them the basic terms in the field of money management.
Also, as part of the program, NBS employees will hold workshops “My budget and I“ and interactive game “Finances for Later“ for pupils in secondary schools in Belgrade, while also taking primary schoolchildren on a tour of the central bank’s visitor center – a unique educational and exhibition space containing permanent exhibition “Money on the Territory of Serbia from its Establishment until Today’ that allows for a series of educational and interactive activities.
Over the past 12 years, the NBS, as a unique institution in Serbia, has been conducting a number of activities related to the financial education of children and youth on the topic of children savings, the history of money, detection of counterfeit money, the role and importance of the central bank, as well as the offering and the functioning of complex financial markets. The responsibility of the NBS as a socially responsible institution is to develop and nurture financial culture of young people and make them capable of making responsible and ethical financial decisions.
Program Know How to Save is part of a wider initiative of Intesa Sanpaolo Group entitled the Art of Saving which is being conducted across Italy from October 24 to 31. The initiative includes educational and fun activities in Turin, Milan, Naples, Vicenza, Bologna and Palermo such as workshops for school children, visits to Intesa Sanpaolo branches for families, as well as tours of Intesa Sanpoalo’s Savings Museum (Museo del Risparmio), its Gallerie d’Italia and Historical Archive.
The Intesa Sanpaolo Group’s Chairman, Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, stressed that “today more than ever it is important to celebrate saving again. On one hand, the savers, in their responsible decision to put off consumption, temporarily allow for a value to be accessed by those who can employ it in the production of goods and services in order to generate new wealth for the community. On the other hand, banks must protect the saver by choosing sound investments in which to put the saved assets. Financial education plays an important role in this process, allowing savers to make informed planning and investment choices.”
The Art of Saving was the brainchild of Turin’s Savings Museum, a multimedia laboratory of Intesa Sanpaolo group designed to educate visitors about finance through personalized experience and fun.
Ignacio Jaquotot, Head of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group’s International Subsidiary Banks Division, said that he was “delighted to help spread financial knowledge and a saving culture in the countries in which we operate with the banks belonging to the Intesa Sanpaolo Group. Thanks to the many initiatives and educational activities conceived by the Savings Museum, we can pay particular attention to young people through the participation of schools and families”.
Along with the Know How to Save program in Serbia, the Art of Saving initiative will also include other ISBD countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. The full program of educational activities is available on www.museodelrisparmio.it and www.gallerieditalia.com.