”la Caixa” Foundation signs an agreement with the German Sparkassenstiftung to promote financial inclusion in Latin America together with the IDB

”la Caixa” Foundation has signed an agreement with the German Sparkassenstiftung (Foundation of German Savings Banks) in order to work together with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to promote the financial inclusion of older people. The chairman of ”la Caixa” Foundation, Isidro Fainé, and the chairman of the German Sparkassenstiftung, Heinrich Haasis, were present at the signing event, held in Barcelona.

Under this agreement, ”la Caixa” Foundation will join the international Silver Finance program, which aims to improve and extend the financial and social inclusion of the population above 60 years in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project has a global budget of $2.2 million - of which ”la Caixa” Foundation will contribute $345,000.

The Silver Finance program is an initiative of the German Sparkassenstiftung. ”la Caixa” Foundation, as an expert entity in supporting older people to contribute to active and healthy aging, will deliver its experience and knowledge to achieve greater financial and social inclusion of the elderly in the participating countries.

Within the initiative, a call for proposals will be opened. At least 8 initiatives will be selected to be supported for a period up to three years. These will be targeted mainly to social innovators and leaders in the field of aging such as foundations, social entities or startups that promote financial inclusion, as well as financial intermediaries from Latin America and the Caribbean, including microfinance institutions, banks, savings cooperatives and fintechs.

Likewise, this project also seeks to generate and disseminate operational knowledge on how to adapt financial channels, products and services to the needs of older adults. A set of indicators will be defined and disseminated for the elderly population, holding sessions with banking regulators and service providers to define actions to improve the financial and social inclusion of older people.

The agreement signed today represents the first joint initiative of ”la Caixa” Foundation with German Sparkassenstiftung (DSIK), the institution for international development cooperation of the German Sparkassen Finance Group DSIK is a prestigious association with great global experience that allocates high resources for education and financial and social inclusion, job creation and entrepreneurship initiatives in developing and transition countries.

Likewise, ”la Caixa” Foundation has been collaborating with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for almost a decade, through agreements to contribute to socioeconomic progress in Latin America, especially in Colombia, where they have jointly promoted projects aimed to generate employment opportunities and to improve the living conditions of vulnerable people in rural areas.

This collaboration is expected to be extended to other members of the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) through the recently created Social and Philanthropic Council, chaired by Isidro Fainé, chairman of ”la Caixa” Foundation. Helmut Schleweis, former president of the Association of German Savings Banks (Sparkassen Finance Group), is the honorary chairman of this Council.

The main functions of the new Council are to lead and promote the social work carried out by the WSBI members, making visible the initiatives in the social field and reinforcing their role; to promote the exchange of experience and knowledge, and to enhance cooperation between members to develop joint initiatives.

The WSBI, which celebrates its centenary in 2024, is the largest retail banking association in the world. It currently groups 93 members from 69 countries and almost 6,400 financial institutions and retail banks, with a total of 1.4 billion clients, 2.1 million employees, 220,000 branches, and 16 trillion dollars in assets and 12 trillion dollars in customer deposits. WSBI members as a whole dedicate $2.8 billion annually to social work and corporate social responsibility around the world.