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.
In October 2020 the Mediobanca Group renewed its partnership with Junior Achievement for the second three-year cycle of Crescere, che impresa! (2020-23), the financial education project launched in September 2018.
In the first three-year cycle, the initiative that makes provision for the active involvement of Group Mediobanca employees, focused on schools in some poor areas of Puglia, Sicily, Tuscany, Luguria, Lombardy and was enriched with some new features:
- use of a digital platform on which to upload all useful materials (class lessons, educational kit for the class and family activity kit);
- creation of e-learning modules to support volunteers and teachers (on-line information section on the programme, preparation of class lesson, development of community of JA volunteers and teachers);
- development of JALab learning labs, including a free workshop for raising the awareness of young people and parents of the programme.
The three-year targets of the project were reached in full
| Year | Students | Volunteers MB Group | Classes | Regions | Provinces | Municipalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018/2019 | 8,809 | 47 | 385 | 14 | 37 | 55 |
| 2019/20 Ist semester |
11,846 | 48 | 420 | 16 | 47 | 76 |
| 2019/20 total1 | 17,909 | 67 | 695 | 16 | 51 | 83 |
During the emergency period due to the Coronavirus which has left thousands of people at home, the Mediobanca group and Junior Achievement Italia have joined forces to help and support families, providing them with tools to help smaller children to understand and deal with this difficult situation. In particular, we have made Family Activities accessible via a simple click, a fundamental element of the business education Crescere che Impresa! programme targeted at middle schools.
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 in the local area dedicated to important issues like taxation, generational transition and new investment tools.
Financial inclusion and pricing policy
The Mediobanca Group, through its Group companies Compass and CheBanca!, 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.
In order to embed and increase its clients’ level of financial awareness. During the present financial year, CheBanca! has also arranged a series of online meetings with the participation of various sector experts, with the objective of promoting information, training and financial education on issues such as cyber-security, ESG topics, and private equity.
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 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.
In April 2016, Mediobanca SGR launched the second Mediobanca Fondo per le Imprese 2.0, which helps finance domestic small and medium companies in difficulty to implement their medium-term development and growth plans. Now that the investment period has ended, the fund is currently managing the positions that have been taken.
