WSBI ESBG

Regional

​Enable financial inclusion around the world

​WSBI and ESBG members are committed to building a financially inclusive society. 

A pledge to financial inclusion​ is outlined in WSBI positions to G20 leaders and in its commitment to World Bank Group’s Universal Financial Access goal. Financial inclusion projects tackle product accessibility and affordability as well as ways to get closer to clients​through proximity networks in both remote and underserved areas.​ Financial education​​ is an important pathway to financial inclusion, which impacts all ages.

Making a Responsible Contribution to the Community

Sustainability means more than just green. It holds a deeply profound social dimension that is part of the DNA of WSBI-ESBG members. Savings and retail banks place a strong social commitment, a factor that differentiates them from other actors in the financial sector and are a driver for job creation and economic growth. As it forms a central role within their identity, WSBI-ESBG member banks:

  • ​Link their business aims and success to the needs of local communities and society in which they operate, over and beyond their customer base.
  • Drive local economic growth, entrepreneurship and jobs.
  • Develop, implement, and support a wide scope of social initiatives to achieve a more inclusive society.
  • Engage with communities through multi-stakeholders partnerships and corporate philanthropy, in such fields as medical and scientific research, arts and culture, social entrepreneurship, education, integration, as well as the preservation of natural and historical heritage.
  • Commit to integrity and ethics among staff, management and governing bodies.
  • Can adopt government structures which allow for democratic backing and supervision from local communities
  • Act self-sustaining and prevent the public from socialised losses.

Promotion of Accessibility and Financial Inclusion

As fair partners for all segments of society, WSBI-ESBG member banks:

  • ​​​​Serve all segments of the population, from younger people to those who, due to their advanced age, lack access to digital banking services to widen financial inclusion. ​​
  • Promote savings and facilitate access to modern financial products and services that are tailored to the financial profile of the person concerned, including those with lower incomes or modest means.
  • Ensure banking accessibility and proximity, close-to-customer banking close at hand by means of their dense network of branches throughout the country, including low populated and economically disadvantaged areas, and via a well-developed range of electronic access channels.
  • Make branches and distribution channels as accessible as possible to elderly people, persons with physical disabilities or impairments.
  • Provide high-quality financial education programmes to fulfil the commitment of providing citizens with a better knowledge of financial issues that will enable them to make informed choices through their lives, thus helping a more resilient society.

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