Digitization brings important advantages for both users and providers of digital services. In the case of users, it offers them the opportunity to access a greater range of products and services, in an agile, convenient and effective way; on the other hand, suppliers allow to enrich the customer’s experience, expand the market and improve their operational efficiency. However, digitization also comes with costs in terms of the digital divide for citizens who lack the necessary digital skills.
Making a transfer, doing a procedure, sending a Bizum or paying by card, among others, are actions that a large part of society has already internalized. However, there are groups that find it more difficult to adapt to the digital world, and it is evident that part of the population, including the elderly, requires additional time to address this change. This is a widespread challenge in all current societies that has a transversal impact on a multitude of sectors, not just the banking sector and that requires a comprehensive response from the public authorities with the collaboration of the private sector where possible.
The banking sector is well aware that the elderly make up a group that is the backbone of society, making valuable contributions to the well-being of their family and social environment. For this reason, it continues to work to improve the care and service it offers to this group, both personally and digitally.
“Banking through the generations”
One of the most important challenges facing the Spanish banking sector is that the process of financial digitization is inclusive. It is essential that those less digitized groups, as is the case with the larger population, acquire skills in this area for the management of their finances. All this, regardless of other specific measures being adopted such as promoting mobile offices, establishing financial agents or enabling specialized telephone support services.
In this new video, Julián is reunited with his granddaughter Maria, a bank employee, and we see that, despite the generational difference, they both speak the same language. The two protagonists are situated within the new paradigm defined by digitization: the grandfather has managed to gradually adapt to the new tools and channels, knowing how to take advantage of the services that the bank offers through these channels, and his granddaughter supports him during this process
This is the second installment of “Banking through the generations”, the new initiative that the CECA sector – CaixaBank, Kutxabank and Cajasur Banc, Abanca, Unicaja Banc, Ibercaja Banc, Caixa Ontinyent, Colonya Caixa Pollença and Cecabank – has put underway to review the evolution of the banking sector in recent years to adapt to the digital transformation and the needs of its customers, with a special focus on the senior group.
The financial digitization of senior clients
We live in a world that is riding the wave of transformation. An ocean that demands permanent adaptation from individuals and requires them to have an incessant learning capacity to acquire the necessary skills that allow them to develop in the environment. In the same vein, “the objective of the EU for 2030 is for 80% of adults to have basic digital skills, when currently 42% of Europeans do not”, according to theDigital Economy and Society Index (DESI) of the European Commission.
The study of Funcas ‘Report on the Spanish banking sector in an environment of changes in productivity’, published in 2021, explains that the pandemic intensified the way citizens manage their finances and drove new habits in consumers, based on digitization. Since the outbreak of the health crisis, the process of financial digitization has been accelerating especially among the older population. The percentage of senior digital customers increased by 27.7% and became the age group that has increased the level of digitalization the most. In addition, the existing financial digital age gap was reduced: 52.2% of internet users over 65 regularly use electronic banking. For this reason, credit institutions continue to implement formulas that allow this group to improve and facilitate their user experience in these digital channels, while striving to offer a quality service adapted to the needs of the elderly when they choose to come to the office.
The bank’s commitment to financial inclusion
The Spanish banking system has the second largest network of branches in the entire European Union, only behind France. In Spain, 98% of adults have a bank account, according to the World Bank, and 98.6% live in a municipality with access to banking services, according to theReport on Financial Inclusion in Spain of the IVIE, and the objective is to raise financial inclusion to 100% of the population.
The commitment of the entities associated with CECA to financial inclusion is permanent and a priority. With the aim of contributing to speeding up progress towards an inclusive economy, the CECA sector has been developing a wide battery of measures for years, especially in rural areas and groups at risk of exclusion. The extension of face-to-face service hours, preferential treatment for the elderly in branches, telephone support with a personal interlocutor, and the offer of financial and digital education actions are some of the actions to move forward in personalized attention, provision of financial services in the senior segment and with different capacities.
