Banreservas has made financial inclusion the organising thread of its corporate responsibility agenda, drawing close to a million Dominicans into the formal banking system between 2020 and 2025.
For the country’s largest bank this is less a programme, more a core strategy: inclusion runs from schoolchildren through to entrepreneurs and rural producers, underpinned by a governance framework aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as a signatory to the UN Global Compact since 2017, and codified in the bank’s Corporate Governance Code, Code of Ethics and certifications including ISO 37001 and ISO 9001.
The inclusion effort rests on two programmes. Bancarizar es Patria has opened more than 930,000 accounts across different social strata, including 37,000 for children, while Preserva has delivered structured financial education – budgeting, saving and responsible borrowing – to more than 447,000 people. Inclusion is also built across the life cycle: Puedo Banreservas, run with the Ministry of Education, introduces money management to more than 4,300 pupils in vulnerable areas, and Reservas del Futuro has funded 249 university scholarships covering full tuition, 60% of them for women.
Enterprise development is pursued with similar reach. Through Cree Banreservas, the bank has assessed 5,728 entrepreneurial projects since inception, offering mentoring, pre-acceleration and capital of up to DOP4.4 million ($75,000) via the Tu Reserva trust; since 2015, the programme has channelled more than DOP72 million into new ventures. Its Coopera initiative trained 3,204 domestic producers from 89 social enterprises in 2025, helping them formalise as cooperatives.
Inclusion, equality, and environmental delivery
Banreservas applies the same standards to its own operations. More than 160 branches have been adapted for accessibility and more than 650 staff trained in sign language; with 133 employees with disabilities, the bank reports the country’s largest such permanent workforce, and the Superintendency of Banks has named it the most inclusive financial institution in the Dominican Republic. On gender, it has held the UNDP-backed Igualando RD Gold Seal for three consecutive years and runs the Lidera programme to develop senior female talent.
Its environmental work carries real weight. Over 12 years, the Voluntariado Vida programme has removed more than 7 million pounds of plastic from the Ozama and Yaque del Norte rivers, while internal recycling has processed 45.5 tonnes of waste through 3,000 collection points.
Inclusion runs from schoolchildren through to entrepreneurs and rural producers, underpinned by a governance framework aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
The economic footprint is substantial. In 2025, the bank directed $109 million in preferential-rate financing to productive sectors, and over five years directed $4 million to cultural programming that reached more than 50,000 people, alongside roughly 38 public-space and recreation projects. Sustaining this is a deliberate investment in the bank’s own capability: its sustainability team holds advanced qualifications, and a dedicated training programme ran 78 activities for more than 2,000 employees during the year.
What sets Banreservas apart is the fit between the breadth of its social agenda and the depth of its delivery. Inclusion, education, enterprise, accessibility and environmental management are not discrete gestures but a single, governed programme, tied to measurable outcomes across the Dominican Republic.
