OK Center,  financial education center initiated by OTP Bank in Romania, hosted over 20,000 people in 2018

Cristina Blanaru Business, CSR, Education, Marketing

In 2018, more than 20,000 people interested in personal and professional development visited OK Center, the first non-formal financial education centre in Romania, the number surpassing the initial estimates of 10,000 visitors in a year. OK Center is the initiative of OTP Bank Romania and the Right to Education Foundation to provide young people and adults in Romania with a permanent space dedicated to educational activities through non-formal learning methods.

Thus, in 2018, OK Center hosted a total of over 1,000 events dedicated to financial education and career guidance, conferences, trainings or creative events in partnership with NGOs, private organizations, entrepreneurs, or public institutions. Of these, 40% consist of the Foundation’s financial education modules for children and adults.

In addition, OK Center, in partnership with the Financial Supervisory Authority, contributed last year to the Global Money Week international initiative, dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of financial education among children and adolescents. Thus, 280 students in the Capital and in Deva had access to relevant information provided by trainers with solid expertise in the financial education area.

At the same time, throughout the past year, the Right to Education Foundation has signed partnerships with over 60 educational institutions and non-governmental and private sector organizations for the implementation of courses in the entire country. As a result, the trainers of the Right to Education Foundation shared the values and knowledge of OK Center with over 4,600 students from 35 cities.

Also, in 2018, the Right to Education Foundation launched OTP Financial Fitness, an adult financial education program based on five basic pillars – income, spending, loans, savings and risk protection. There were 100 sessions in Bucharest and 39 in the country, attended by more than 800 adults interested in updating their knowledge in the financial field by novel methods. In the same line, the Foundation has developed a partnership with Politehnica University of Bucharest to give students the possibility to learn a responsible financial behaviour.

For 2019, the Foundation aims to strengthen OTP Financial Fitness’s position in the financial education landscape so that it will become a reference program in Romania. This objective will be achieved by strengthening the interactions with the university sphere, with OTP Bank Romania’s corporate clients, but also with all those interested in acquiring a responsible financial behaviour.

Another important goal for 2019 is the development of valuable partnerships on all aspects of financial education and career training, that will support the contribution to the formation and development of the young generation in Romania.

The Right to Education Foundation supports and promotes the development of financial, economic and management skills among students between 10 and 18 years old and offers them the psychological tools for conscious career planning. All the economic and financial education modules focus on the acquirement of the financial alphabet, based on the Edutainment methodology, in an age appropriate language.

OK Center is the first non-formal financial education center in Romania. The 1200mp space is dedicated to those who want to update their financial knowledge through novel methods.

OTP Bank Romania, subsidiary of OTP Bank, the largest independent banking group in Central and Eastern Europe, is an integrated and self-funded provider of financial services. With an approach based on responsibility, commitment and professionalism, OTP Bank Romania understands its clients’ needs and the current market context, being a reliable partner in the area of financial services.

OTP Group offers high quality universal financial services to almost 18 million clients in 9 countries through its network of roughly 1,500 branches, ATMs and cutting-edge electronic channels. OTP Bank is the largest financial service provider in Hungary and an important player in the Central and Eastern European market.