More than 60 participants came together for an institutional exchange of experience in Cuba’s capital city of Havana on 5 and 6 November 2015. The event, which was jointly organised by the Cuban Banco Popular de Ahorro (BPA), Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation (Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation) and the Ostdeutscher Sparkassenverband (East German Savings Banks Association – OSV) concentrated on such issues like the development of credit products, customer service for microentrepreneurs or strategies of education and further training.
Wolfgang Zender, CEO of the East German Savings Banks Association (OSV), Michael Bräuer, Chairman of the German savings bank Sparkasse Oberlausitz-Niederschlesien, and Wolfram Morales, Office Manager to OSV’s Executive President, showed themselves delighted with the far-reaching cooperation with the BPA and reported about the experiences of their member savings banks and how these experiences can be adopted and applied to the Cuban banking sector. “We are happy to share those experiences with our Cuban colleagues that we have gained during the restructuring process of the savings banks of the former GDR into modern universal credit institutions with a public mandate. Just like the colleagues from West Germany have shared their experiences with us in 1990”, Zender said during the meeting. Although Cuba is not East Germany, many challenges and tasks on-hand here seemed pretty familiar to him.
Adequate financial products for microentrepreneurs: Similarities between Cuba and the Eastern German federal states
Cuba’s economic reform of 2010 paved the way for new market players like independent microentrepreneurs. However, a lack of financial services and adequate financial products strongly hampers the financing and business opportunities of these enterprises.
Parallels of this trend can be found in Germany’s recent past: The economic transformation processes the Eastern German federal states had to go through in the wake of the German reunification proved to be a great challenge for both the people and the local financial institutions.
Within a short period of time the East German savings banks had to adjust to the new situation and conditions and along with it also to their customers’ changed needs for adequate financial products. To better cope with this enormous challenge, the financial institutions were supported by West German savings banks, taking over the mentoring task and willingly sharing their knowledge and skills with the colleagues from East Germany. This huge treasure of experience, the East German savings banks can draw upon today, is now made available to the Cuban partner institutions.
Sparkassenstiftung’s activities in Cuba
Since 2013, the East German Savings Banks Association OSV and the Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation (Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation) have supported the Cuban savings bank BPA. Based on the reviews of BPA’s current products and processes, Sparkassenstiftung executes consulting and training measures on product development and financial literacy as well as support to start-ups and microenterprises. Furthermore, additional internal education and training courses are offered to BPA’s bank staff.
BPA’s President Horacio Navas and Sparkassenstiftung’s Head of Division for Latin America, Gerd Weissbach, were highly pleased with the joint cooperation activities. First consulting and staff training measures have been very successful and both partners have high expectations for the future joint project activities.
Contact partners:
Inka Rank / Carina Lau
Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation
Simrockstraße 4
53113 Bonn / Germany
Tel.: +49 228 9703-6631 / -6608
Fax: +49 228 9703-6613