About the Program

During 2016 and 2017 we launched two small-scale pilot programs with the Argentine Ministry of Education, the Directorate-General for Schools in Mendoza and partner financial institutions, which enabled us to learn about the way the Argentine youth save money. On the basis of their feedback we seek to:

-foster youths’ financial literacy and inclusion through the development of strategies to ensure their economic security within a savings culture; and

-assess the contribution of financial education towards the design of efficient public policies.

Why have we launched pilot programs?

Because they enable us to correct mistakes before taking measures at a domestic level and to allocate more resources.

On the whole, more than 10,000 students from 64 schools from the province of Mendoza participated in this program.

First pilot program | November 2016 and April-May 2017

November 2016

  • - 1.260 students
  • - 112 family members
  • - 13 schools from the capital city of Mendoza and Greater Mendoza (Las Heras, Godoy Cruz, Guaymallén and Maipú)

Banco de la Nación Argentina has cooperated with this program.

April-May 2017

  • - 3.318 students
  • - 80 family members

six more educational intitutions from Mendoza joined the program.

Methodology

We divided the participating schools at random into three groups:

  • - First group | Students were given a short training workshop on savings accounts as well as UVA- and UVI-denominated savings accounts.
  • Second group | Students were given an intensive training workshop on savings and access to bank services.
  • - Third group or control group | Students received no training at all.

Before conducting the workshops, the three groups were surveyed, obtaining answers from 3,318 students. The data collected showed that:

  • -78% of students would like to keep their savings at a bank. This figure reaches 87% in those areas with less banking infrastructure. Three out of four students would like to keep their money at a bank because it would help them to stop wasting money: they consider this type of saving as way to get down their consumption expenditure or to safeguard their money.
  • - Their savings are mostly targeted to: housing (26%), education (25%) and clothing (13%). In the rural areas, students associate savings with the idea of covering their own education (33%).

Second pilot program | October-November 2017

  • - 5.189 students
  • - 45 schools (the same educational institutions of the city of Mendoza and Greater Mendoza: Las Heras, Godoy Cruz, Guaymallén and Maipú, to which Rivadavia, Junín, San Martín and Lavalle schools joined)

This program was supported by Banco de la Nación Argentina, Credicoop, Supervielle, Itaú, Galicia and Santander Río.

Methodology

We divided the participating schools at random into two groups:

  • - Treatment group | Students become acquainted with financial education concepts, and receive specific references and material on savings and bank accounts for underage savers.
  • - Control group | They explore general topics regarding financial education.