Following a two-year break due to the pandemic, Erste banka is resuming the free Smart Finance School workshops at the bank's branch offices. The workshops are available to all interested citizens, associations, companies and educational institutions. They are purely educational and the bank offers them with the aim of promoting financial health among as many citizens as possible. The first workshops will be held in June and July in five cities: Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Rijeka and Pula, and as of autumn they will be held in 20 cities.

The workshop titled “The Basics of Personal Finance Management” is for adults, regardless of their prior knowledge and personal financial situation. Over the course of two hours, participants will work on their skills in financial planning, conscious spending management, learn how to set priorities and manage a home budget. Interested citizens can apply for the workshops via the app available on the website of Erste Banka's Smart Finance School, where, in the schedule menu, they can choose whether they want to participate in the workshop at a bank branch office or online. If they opt for online education, the only prerequisite for their participation is Internet access and a computer or tablet/phone with a camera and microphone. In addition to these workshops, the financial literacy programme also includes video courses.

Erste banka launched the Smart Finance School programme in April 2019 to encourage as many citizens to acquire skills and knowledge in the field of personal finance management, taking into consideration future life and financial goals and conscious spending management. The School's workshops were held even during the pandemic, mostly online via the MS Teams app, with more than 2,300 people participanting since April 2021.

In addition to workshops for adults, the bank also organizes School workshops for primary school children from 5^th to 8^th grade, high school and university students. All workshops are purely educational with no commercial character. More than 10,000 participants have participated in the workshops so far. 84% of citizens who took part in the workshop satisfaction survey stated that the workshop was extremely and very useful, and that it encouraged them to keep track of their budget, savings, etc. The programme was designed and implemented by the bank’s internal experts who also carry out the programme activities.