Education and financial inclusion
As a group we are dedicated to promoting the culture and enhancement of financial awareness of our customers and vulnerable sections of the community
Our group is committed, in Italy and abroad, to providing basic financial education to its customers and implementing financial inclusion projects, especially with regards to disadvantaged groups and those at risk of exclusion. The model we’ve adopted is based on the dissemination of simple and clear information on products and services. Each group company constructs their projects based on their own reference market.
A new financial education programme entitled “CONTA SUL FUTURO!” was launched in conjunction with Junior Achievement Italy for middle school pupils in October 2023, following on from the Crescere che Impresa! project launched in 2018.
The project, which is available free of charge for all schools throughout Italy, consists of eight learning modules, four of which on financial education issues, with the aim of introducing certain basic personal finance concepts, and the other four focused on career guidance, helping the young people involved to gain a clearer picture of their personalities and skills, to support them as they seek to discover what professions suit them most.
For the “CONTA SUL FUTURO!” project, a new digital platform will be activated and volunteers from the Mediobanca Group will be involved to support the classroom-based activities, and a book will be published for the 2024-25 school year by Sanoma, the school publishing company which is partnering in the project.
During the 2023-24 school year, the programme has seen the involvement of a total of 97 schools, 497 classes, 10,255 pupils, 323 teachers, and 98 volunteers, 76 of whom from the Mediobanca Group. A further 74,745 students have been reached through the digital contents.
“CONTA SUL FUTURO!” follows on from the “Crescere che Impresa!” project which JA Italy has promoted since 2018, and which too targeted middle school aged children
During the 2020-23 three-year period, a total of 31,349 students and 1,096 teachers of 1,538 classes at 631 schools were involved, with the participation of 353 volunteers, 124 of whom from the Mediobanca Group.
Mediobanca Private Banking carries out constant financial training of its customers with the goal of increasing awareness and knowledge of the products and services that are offered. It also organises training events on topical issues.
Financial inclusion and pricing policy
The Mediobanca Group, through its Group companies Compass and Mediobanca Premier, aims to contribute to financial inclusion, based on the conviction that it is through inclusion that an increasing number of people will be able to improve their own social conditions.
The pricing strategies adopted target maintaining an adequate level of profitability that is sustainable over time, offering clients credit based on their needs and financial sustainability.
Compass in particular adopts an income diversification strategy based on product and channel, which, by leveraging on the breadth and historical depth of its customer base, enables it to broaden its target clientèle and so capture opportunities arising from financial inclusion, tailoring the interest rate to the type of client and operations involved.
Credit monitoring, which is fundamental in order to pick up any indicators of irregularity in relations with the client, allows prevention strategies to be activated in a timely manner, so avoiding further deterioration and ensuring conditions of normality are recovered as soon as possible. To this end Compass has adopted a Pricing Policy, which defines the rules and responsibilities for developing and distributing the products featured in the catalogue. The Pricing Policy is approved by the Board of Directors as one of its prerogatives in setting and supervising strategic direction.
The Group has also adopted a system of controls, which includes the following measures:
Risk Management area: credit risk management tools are implemented, including the relevant metrics, which also includes the internal rating systems and credit rating scores. Portfolio monitoring and management plays a crucial role here, combining early warning indicators and process information to allow any client difficulties to be managed as effectively as possible, and the quality of the acceptance policies and their calibration to be checked at the same time, thus ensuring continuous improvement.
Marketing area: this area supervises the proposal and development of new products, including ones addressed to categories of customers not usually targeted, to support all the sales channels, and performs market analysis, product governance customer satisfaction monitoring.
Compliance area: this area is responsible for ensuring proper conduct is adopted in the course of business, minimizing the risk of staff conduct, despite being compliant with the regulations, still causing damage to the client, whether actual or potential.
Training sessions are organized to ensure staff are thoroughly prepared, including in terms of the right way of offering products to clients.
The bank believes in the value of training and in the importance of sharing its skills and expertise, which it does by publishing content and promoting initiatives to promote increased awareness of wealth management, pension provision, and issues focused on digital security. In practical terms, this commitment involves arranging meetings in partnership with some of the leading asset managers, publishing quarterly analysis reports to enable a better understanding of the economic and financial scenario, and sending regular communications with advice on how to protect personal data and information.
Compass’s contribution to financial inclusion and accessibility takes the form primarily of various commercial communication initiatives in languages other than Italian. The company’s website includes different sections in English, Spanish, Filipino and Romanian. With a view to attracting younger customers with its product offering, in 2020 Compass launched HeyLight (previously Pagolight), a buy now, pay later product.
Clients with an ISEE (equivalent financial situation indicator) of less than €11,600 who apply for finance are offered basic current accounts for poorer customers. This account guarantees favourable treatment for customers, e.g. no charges for opening or closing the account, no stamp duty, etc.