The Ministry of Finance and Bank of Russia have updated the population’s financial literacy development strategy to be used until the year 2030. The new version makes emphasis on transition from financial literacy to financial culture. Over the years Center-invest Bank has been successfully implementing the sustainable banking model and comprehensive development of financial literacy in the region.
Center-invest Bank is actively engaged in the development of education and financial culture, it was the first in the country to open Financial Literacy Centers in order to grant the people access to free financial advice and knowledge. At present there are 5 functioning Financial Literacy Centers in Southern Russia, remote communication channels ensure equal access to the FLC materials for everyone, regardless of location. The Centers have already hosted 5,400 events, educational talks and seminars, drawing more than 1.8 million visitors. The bank’s programs are accredited with the Financial Literacy Development Association.
Special Educational Areas of the Financial Literacy Center: Financial literacy course for people with disabilities — a special course for training volunteers to work with physically challenged people and people with disabilities was implemented in cooperation with the Financial Literacy Development Association (FLDA) and other partners;
Financial literacy course for — this educational program consists of lectures on a series of topics, including «Income Sources and Building of Personal Budget», «Essential Information on Bank Cards and Personal Financial Security», «Preparation for Interviews and Securing of Employment», etc.;
Financial Literacy in Sign Language — a unique inclusive project for children, youth and retired people;
Annual participation in the Online Financial Literacy Lessons for School Students project by the Bank of Russia and the Russian Ministry of Education — at year-end of 2022, Center-invest Bank ranked first among financial institutions in the number of views by project participants. The project audience exceeded 5 million people. Among the program participants are students of secondary and general educational institutions, vocational schools, organizations for orphans and abandoned children;
Financial Literacy for Retired People — a series of educational presentations on acute financial issues to make the senior citizens understand how to avoid financial pyramids and traps of scammers during telephone and in-person contacts.
The Financial Literacy Centers also serve as a platform for internship and training of the bank’s young specialists. In its personnel policy, the bank does not use the headhunting method but forms its personnel reserve by inviting students from local universities for internship and teaching them. Experienced employees pass their knowledge and expertise, become teachers of trademark training courses and mentors for the new employees. In 2022, 1,023 people completed the Banking course at the FLC, of which 74 best young specialists became employees of the bank.
Business Accelerator
The bank also develops its own Business Accelerator for startups and already operating businesses on the basis of the Financial Literacy Center. The Accelerator program includes training, mentorship and lending at discounted rates. Center-invest Bank has acceleration programs in seven areas: for starting and already operating businessmen, self-employed persons, teachers, marketplace participants, Don State Technical University engineering students, and participants of foreign economic activities. The courses are taught by more than 150 professionals and experts from different regions. The entrepreneurs who have completed this course increase their proceeds by an average of 20%. More than 7,000 people have been trained.
Support of forums and hackathons The bank regularly supports modern innovation projects for the youth, cooperates with universities, non-government associations and public authorities with the purpose of improving financial literacy, supporting science and technology, developing talents and training much-needed IT professionals. Center-invest Bank continuously supports the Southern Russia’s largest hackathons: The Spring Hackathon, the Autumn Hackathon, Cybersecurity of Individuals: Countering the Corruption-Related Crimes in the Digitalized Financial Service Environment, Economics of SME Transformations, HUMANHACK, Cyber Garden, IT Tech, etc. The bank supports the students’ endeavor to develop in the area of IT, provides cases to address matters connected with the development of financial literacy culture, helps them to walk this path, and the most promising young talents are invited to join the Center-invest Bank’s team.
FINOPOLIS Center-invest Bank traditionally partners with the FINOPOLIS advanced financial technologies forum held by the Bank of Russia in partnership with the IT and financial market leaders. FINOPOLIS is the country’s largest venue for discussion and analysis of trends and possibilities for application of modern digital technologies in the financial sector.
The Economics of Transformations Contest Center-invest Bank regularly organizes contests for students and young researchers. In 2023 the bank held the Economics of Transformation international student projects contest with the prize pool of 3 million rubles focusing on social, economic, environmental and infrastructure projects. The eponymous Economics of Transformations handbook prepared by the bank served as a methodological framework of the contest.
The contest covered 49 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. In total, the contest received 423 applications from 95 universities. This international-scale contest enabled young people from Russia and the CIS countries to offer new solutions for putting into practice new social, economic and production technologies, measures and forms of support for the development of enterprises, regions and industries, in order to achieve common strategic goals.