DFCC Bank doubles up efforts to improve children’s financial literacy in new normal
The financial literacy remains a critical element to unlock the range available and emerging opportunities in order to become financially successful for a significant portion of the population in Sri Lanka and for overall economic development of the country. As a responsible and leading commercial bank of the country, DFCC Bank actively engages in efforts in developing the financial literacy of the population, with a special focus on children, with them being the most important asset for the future.
In particular, DFCC Bank aims to develop financially responsible citizens with its specially catered savings product portfolio for children and teenagers that grants an opportunity for the children to practice and grow habits of saving and wealth management at an early stage.
With this in mind, DFCC Bank offers a wide range of benefits and rewards as incentives to their junior customers to further develop their savings habits and to effectively manage their money. In addition, DFCC Bank has also strengthened its efforts to enhance financial literacy among children in the new normal environment through a variety of educational programmes.
DFCC Bank Vice President Trade Sales and Institutional Business Anton Arumugam recently joined for an interview to discuss some of the key recent initiatives of the bank to improve the financial literacy of children, Junior savings product of the bank and some of the benefits and rewards on them.
Following are the excerpts from the interview.
What are the children’s savings products available with DFCC Bank?
As a responsible bank, we have carefully crafted several of savings products to children and teenagers.
DFCC Junior savings account is the children’s savings product that is designed to cultivate and grow the savings habit in our children. It comes with a range of special gifts and benefits. Any children with their guardian can open up a DFCC savings account, with an initial deposit of Rs.500.
The Junior Plus account is a special savings product that we are offering any child or teenager up to 18 years. With an initial deposit of Rs.1000, they can enjoy a higher return on their savings.
In addition, we have designed DFCC Teen account for teenagers between 13 and 18 years of age. The main purpose of DFCC Teen account is to provide an opportunity for teenagers to save money that they earn with their talents or receive as pocket money or the cash gifts.
What are the benefits of choosing DFCC Junior children’s savings account for parents and children?
DFCC Junior children’s savings account has an embedded incentive that is aimed at cultivating and developing savings habit in children. We offer various gifts and rewards linked to levels of savings in order to encourage savings habits of children.
In order for parents or the guardian to stay alerted on activities of their children’s savings account, we offer real-time SMS alerts on activities of these accounts.
We also offer various educational programmes physically as well as virtually to children to increase their financial knowledge.
Are there any promotions available when opening a new DFCC Junior savings account with the bank?
Yes, I would like to highlight one of our most recent promotions. We are gifting a branded wireless headphone for every deposit of Rs.20,000 and above. This is valid for all existing Junior savings accounts as well as new accounts.
The main purpose behind this offer is to support and facilitate the online education of our Junior savings account holders, with the increased focus on virtual education channels in the new normal environment that we are in.
How has DFCC Bank been engaging with its Junior customers in the new normal?
There has been a significant shift in the habits of children with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic with most kids having to shift to virtual channels to keep up with their education. With these developments, we launched a series of grade five scholarship seminars, financial literacy programmes as well as art seminars virtually since last year.
Adopting to communicate with the children in the new normal environment, we made sure that we continuously engaged with them and continue the dialogue with them. We have been able to maintain and even grow our engagement with the children and teenagers in this period, as reflected in the growth in the number of accounts, balances of junior savings accounts and our social media outreaches.
What is your message to parents and children?
While I agree that we need to inculcate the saving habit in our children and youngsters, I believe what is more important is building financial discipline in them at an early age. Especially, I have seen that many people tend to lose focus on managing their expenses. Therefore, we need to inculcate the ways and means of managing expenses effectively in children, starting at an early age, to minimise expenses by educating and guiding them to reduce unnecessary expenditures. Then, the savings will start. This approach is essential to develop financially responsible citizens, especially when they take up the leadership roles in different industries and institutions in the future. Ultimately, our country will benefit from this. That’s my message to both parents and to children and I want to reiterate DFCC Bank’s commitment in supporting our children on their path to becoming financially responsible citizens of the country.