The Banco de España (the Spanish national bank) and the CNMV (national stock market commission) have given the Finanzas para Todos 2020 award to Barcelona City Council, recognising its Economic Education programme (EdEc) as the best financial initiative. The programme is designed to help people manage their personal and family finances better. The two institutions highlighted the programme’s particular importance in the current situation, as an initiative based around values such as equal opportunities and seeking to improve financial decision-making and habits.

More participants and an online version of the course

Following the outbreak of Covid-19, the course content was adapted to an online format and will be available to promote personalised training and support over a 12-month period for 450 people a year.

With the launch of the website web barcelona.cat/educacioeconomica, the programme has also been opened up to everybody with a free online course featuring theory, exercises and questionnaires, information on things such as the importance of budgets, setting goals for income and savings, prioritising spending, avoiding overborrowing and taking the future into account. The website also offers tools such as the economic health test and information of interest for people’s personal and family finances.

The EdEc aims to improve people’s quality of life, regardless of their financial situation, and by adapting the programme to the website the hope is to reach more and more households.

Promoted by the Area for Social Rights, Global Justice, Feminism and LGBTI Affairs, with the collaboration of Barcelona Activa, the Association of Economists of Catalonia, the Association of Psychologists of Catalonia and Secot BCN, the programme was given an overall score of 4.8 out of 5 by users, who affirmed that they would not hesitate to recommend it to others.