Private banking: educating the next generation of customers

BBVA Global Wealth held the seventh edition of its 'Next Generation' Madrid program, intended for second generations of Private Banking customers. The purpose of the program is to bring value to customers’ families, providing them with a specific educational experience. In recent years, financial education programs for private banking customers’ heirs are becoming increasingly popular. These programs are mainly aimed at members of the “millennial generation”, responsible for a generational rift that’s occurring across all sectors. The defining traits of the millennials and their parents’ generations differ greatly. For millennials, digitization is extremely important. This is not surprising, considering the fact that this is the first generation that has never needed to visit a bank branch to access financial services. The recently concluded edition of  ‘Next Generations Madrid’, organized by BBVA Global Wealth, brought together 39 customers from different nationalities. With support from the prestigious University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the program focused on strengthening the leadership skills of the heirs, and the creation of responsible value through their heritage. Besides the aforementioned program, BBVA also organizes two additional programs outside of Spain: ‘Wall Street Experience,” which focuses on financial markets and family wealth management; and ‘Silicon Valley Immersion’, held in San Francisco and which provides a practical approach to entrepreneurship and the creation of startups. Although millennials are sometimes accused of lacking interest in finance, the truth is that these new generations are open to improve their knowledge in the field.  Most are greatly interested in gaining and expanding their understanding of investments, especially if they are already engaging in some investment-related activities, as many of these descendants are. So far, based on the results obtained, these experiences for second generations have proven a success. In the case of BBVA, almost 340 customers from 15 different nationalities have already taken part in the educational experience programs. Besides the educational experience, these events also offer a networking opportunity for future heirs of sizeable fortunes. Another characteristic of this generation, as noted in Schroders Global Investor Study 2016, is the social and environmental awareness of millennials, which plays a key role when choosing investments. These training programs aim to provide second generations with the tools required to maximize the returns of their investments and assets, while improving the relationship between the customer and the institution. Article written by Miriam Iglesias Otero, BBVA.