ESBG Member Benefits
Membership in ESBG brings offers a bespoke set of benefits including involvement in a 'ready-made coalition' and involvement in platforms to exchange experience.
WSBI focuses on the following activities in order to strengthen its position as an international hub for savings and retail banking.
International advocacy: Greater lobbying weight, visibility
WSBI provides its members with the opportunity to influence international policy and standard setting bodies and to contribute the achievements and solutions of the savings and retail banking industry. This takes place through the publication of position papers and regular high-level and/or working-level meetings with international bodies such as:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the purpose of raising awareness concerning the role and contribution of savings and retail banks to financial stability and economic development.
- The Financial Stability Board (FSB) on a wide range of policy issues impacting the savings and retail banking business model.
- The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and in particular the Basel Committee on Banking Super- vision (BCBS) on all regulatory and prudential issues.
- The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on taxation (automatic exchange of information), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) concerning anti-money laundering and terrorist financing issues as well as the International Network on Financial Education (INFE)
- The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) concerning international financial reporting standards
- Regional organisations such as the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Union (EU) institutions, the Centre for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) and Latin American Banking Federation (FELABAN) as well as development banks such as the AFD (Africa), ADB (Asia), IDB (Inter-American) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Knowledge sharing, access to expertise, information and peer-to-peer exchanges
WSBI has developed working platforms to provide members access to a global network of retail banking experts sharing similar business values, visions and ambitions to enable exchanges of experience and best practices, to reflect their expectations and needs and to support their efforts in addressing critical challenges.
These platforms also provide the opportunity to disseminate and promote the leading edge knowledge of WSBI in such areas as agent banking, digitalization, mobile channels and remittances and provide members with opportunities for business development within the WSBI network or through partnerships with external stakeholders.
The current focus of knowledge sharing at WSBI is on Innovation and peer-to-peer exchanges of information and best practices on improving the customer experience and reducing time to market.
Examples: Exchanges taking place at various levels within the organization
- Statutory meetings and Annual Regional Meetings in Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas: The meetings serve as a platform for exchanges of experience among members and also provide potential members or other interested (international or regional) organizations to appreciate what savings and retail banks and the WSBI stand for.
- Annual Conference on Retail Banking that provides a platform open to professionals in the field of financial regulations, e.g. policy makers, regulators, bankers, academics, etc.
- WSBI World Congress (every three years) addressing global trends that affect WSBI members and their customers. The 2015 Congress is focused on the global theme of “Main Street Banking in a Digitised World”.
- Regional seminars, cross-regional conferences and the International Summer Forum: These take place on a regular basis on both operational and strategic topics as well as on issues related to financial inclusion such as financial education, branchless banking, etc.
Other activities:
- Regular and timely information and analysis on the impact of new developments in international regulation and other issues that concern the activities of the savings and retail banking organisations that make up the WSBI membership. These include such publications as the News & Views quarterly magazine (published in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish), CEO Newsletter (published in English, French, German, and Spanish), working papers, position papers, and reports on specific issues that are relevant to members.
- Identification of funding opportunities offered by international/regional institutions and provision of support to members in their applications. WSBI has associations with international programmes, e.g. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World Bank, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), FSD Africa as well as some international foundations.
- Facilitate ‘members help members’ to capitalize on their combined strengths. This may include the organisations of study visits and south/south technical assistance.
- Capacity building through WSBI’s first class Training and Consulting services in such areas as change management, agent banking, mobile banking and mobile money, data management and analytics, retail payments, interoperability and G2P, credit activities development, distribution policies, risk management and sustainable financial inclusion, strategic HR development, regional or tailored training and cross country research.
ESBG latest
March 29, 2023
A Digital Euro: what does it mean for savings and retail banks?
Since its inception, ESBG has been taking an active role in Digital Euro-related discussions and overall, ESBG welcomes
March 28, 2023
Politico Finance Summit 2023 held in Paris
March 17, 2023
ESBG submits its response to the EBA consultation on the overall recovery capacity in recovery planning.
On 14 March, ESBG submitted its response to the consultation launched by the European Banking Authority (EBA)
March 8, 2023
WSBI-ESBG’s Managing Director advocates for proportionate banking supervision at EBI event
The integration of climate risk considerations in banks’ risk management processes will continue to be one of the key ECB priorities
March 3, 2023
ESBG submits its response to the EBA consultation on its data collection for the benchmarking exercise in 2024
On 28 February, the ESBG submitted its response to the European Banking Authority (EBA) consultation on its data collection for the benchmarking exercise in 2024
February 21, 2023
ESBG responded to the ESMA consultation about the use of ESG terms in funds’ names
On 17 February, ESBG submitted its response to the ESMA consultation about the use of ESG terms in funds’ names
February 17, 2023
ESBG Spotlight: European Payments – taking Stock of current developments
In the Spotlight: Dr. Joachim Schmalzl, Executive Member of the Board of DSGV
February 16, 2023
ESBG responds to EBA consultation on the effective management of money laundering risks when providing access to financial services
In December 2022, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published draft Guidelines on the effective management of
February 16, 2023
ESBG addresses EU policy makers via a new position paper on instant payments
In this respect, they are requested to assess whether the arrangements in place are still fit for purpose to support the execution of the resolution strategy through
February 16, 2023
ESBG submitted its response on resolvability testing to the EBA consultation
On 14 February, ESBG submitted its response to the consultation launched by the European Banking Authority (EBA) in November