By Nishel Fernando

With latest studies showing that children start developing habits as early as the age of five, it remain imperative to support and guide children to develop good savings and spending habits at an early age in order for them to evolve into financially responsible adults. In particular, banks have a key role in assisting today’s digital-savvy kids to develop these habits.

As a responsible and leading commercial bank of the country, DFCC Bank has always been actively engaging in various efforts for children to develop savings and good spending habits by offering incentives while engaging with them on different platforms.

In particular, DFCC Bank offers specially-catered its savings products portfolio for children and teenagers allowing them to practice and grow habits of saving and to develop a better financial discipline at an early stage.

Moreover, the DFCC bank has also continued its efforts to enhance financial literacy among the children in the new normal environment by offering variety of educational programs on digital platforms.

The DFCC Bank, Senior Vice President Retail Banking & SME, Aasiri Iddamalgoda recently joined for a brief discussion to discuss some of key new initiatives taken by the Bank to improve the financial literacy of children and benefits and rewards offered by DFCC Children’s Savings products.

Following are the excerpts of the interview:

Q: In DFCC Bank’s perspective, how you see the importance of children for the nation?

We firmly believe Children are the most important asset for the future. Hence, they need to be guided and assisted in many ways on a continuous basis, while prioritizing the development of their education which will lead to a better financial discipline in the country.

With this mind DFCC Bank engages in a series of activities to support academic activities of children to improve their knowledge and skill levels which support them to grow into the ideal citizens of the country.

Q: What are the Savings products offered by DFCC Bank for children?

As a responsible bank, we have carefully crafted a 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 saving habit in our children. It comes with a range of special gifts and benefits. Any Child with their guardian can open up a DFCC Junior Savings Account with an Initial deposit of Rs 500.

DFCC Junior Plus Account is another children’s savings account that can open with an initial deposit of Rs 1000, and offers higher return on savings.

In addition, we have designed DFCC Teen Account for teenagers between 13 to 18 years of age. The 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. This account permits younger generation to have access to banking services from their teen age itself and inculcate savings habits. DFCC Teen Account holders can enjoy a specific amount of cash withdrawals from their account to meet their daily educational expenses and also the account facilitate online payments and transactions.

Q: Could you mention some of incentives and rewards offered by DFCC Banks to Junior customers?

Yes, DFCC Junior Children’s Savings Account has an embedded incentive that are aimed at cultivating and developing savings habits in children. We offer various gifts and rewards linked to levels of savings in order to encourage savings habits of children.

All DFCC Junior customers are eligible to receive incredible gifts as their savings grow. DFCC Junior customers can receive Penguin shaped till, Water Bottle, School Bag, Stationery Pack, Power Bank, Bluetooth Radio and gift vouchers worth 7,500, 10,000, 20,000 and 45,000 as their savings grows.

In addition, Grade 5 students receive special rewards. We extend a reward of Rs.150 for all our Junior saving account-holders for every mark above 150 that they score on their scholarship examination. If a child gets 180 marks, Rs.4,500/- will be rewarded which will be credited to the DFCC Junior Account of the child.

Q: How has been DFCC Bank engaging with Children in the new normal when they are mostly confined to their homes?

We observed a significant shift in the habits of children with the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic with most kids having to shift to virtual channels to keep up with their education. With these developments, we took steps to launch a series of Grade 05 scholarship seminars, financial literacy programs as well as art workshops virtually since last year.

By adopting digital platforms to communicate with children in the new normal environment, we made sure that we continuously engaged with them and continue the dialogue with them. Therefore, we have been able to maintain and even grow our engagement with the children and teenagers in this period as reflected in growth in number of accounts, balances of Junior savings accounts and our social media outreaches.

Q: Do you have a message to parents and children?

Yes, I believe it’s crucial that we are engaged in both inculcating saving habits in our children and youngsters while building financial discipline in them at an early age. In particular, with many losing their sights on managing their expenses.

Therefore, we need to inculcate habits of responsible spending along with saving habits in children starting at an early age. We should educate and guide them to cut down unnecessary expenditures, so the savings can begin. 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.

I invite parents to enjoy the benefits and facilities of DFCC children’s saving accounts by opening an account for your kids. I want to assure them that DFCC Bank is firmly committed in supporting and guiding our children on their path to becoming financially responsible citizens of the country.