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Swedbank gives back to community

Dec 16, 2022

This year has come not only with numerous challenges but also has given Swedbank opportunities to help each other and learn new skills. This year Swedbank continued to support organizations and initiatives working towards strengthening financial literacy, education, youth mental health, and other important areas in Latvia.

Support for Ukrainian refugees in Latvia: in spring, the bank donated 100 000 EUR to NGOs in Latvia working with Ukrainian refugees. In addition, the bank donated an extra 20 000 EUR, portable computers and school supplies for Ukrainian children and families. Swedbank's annual Christmas donation campaign was also dedicated to helping Ukrainians and young people in Latvia - Swedbank employees in Latvia voted and decided to distribute 50 000 EUR Swedbank donation among different NGOs working with Ukrainian refugees and mental health support for young people.

2022 has also shown that financial literacy is as important as never before. That’s why Swedbank’s Institute of Finance and other divisions have given a lot of knowledge not only to the bank’s clients, but also have educated young people all year long. For example - more than 4500 pupils all over Latvia have visited the Laboratory of Finance held in Swedbank’s head office, almost 40 thousand kids from 2nd to 4th grade have learned about finances in the online “Money Day” and lots of teachers use Swedbank’s provided lectures through program “Ready for life” to educate their students on finances.

Youth entrepreneurship skills are something Swedbank feels very passionate about. The bank's business plan competition for pupils and students “Business sketches” gave an opportunity for young people to improve their business ideas and win valuable prizes. Their long-term partner Junior Achievement Latvia continues to implement student companies’ education program - with Swedbank support this program is already available in 300 schools with more than 170 000 pupils all over Latvia, with more than 1000 registered student enterprises. Swedbank’s initiatives “Enterprise Experience Days” and “Entrepreneurship World Cup” are held every to support and inspire the bank’s clients.

2022 has proven that security and democracy are the most precious values to European countries. Swedbank supports the opinion festival LAMPA, which hosts more than 250 events. This year the festival was attended by over 19 000 participants and reached more than 240 000 people online. Every year Swedbank hosts several events on the festivals Sustainability stage. This year Swedbank also started a new partnership with the youth program MOT which stands for three values – courage to live, courage to care, and courage to say no. At the moment MOT is active in 70 schools with more than 15 000 pupils. There are 17 trainers from Swedbank Latvia in the program, who have helped to strengthen youth’s robustness.

Swedbank continues to work on strategically important areas for 2023 with various partners and projects.

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