During the first years, according to the statutes, fifty percent of the profits obtained were destined to the reserve fund and at least twenty-five percent of these profits were dedicated to social and charitable works. This percentage was dedicated to what was said to be the motto of the savings bank, ‘to do good’. The remainder was to be used for the staff pension fund, prizes for the most deserving customers, savings promotion, and free performances at the Monte de Piedad.
In 1920, the first Juvenile Court in Spain was inaugurated in Bilbao, the work of Gabriel Mª de Ybarra y de la Revilla (1875-1951), who also promoted the creation of a re-education house, or Reformatory Centre, located in Amurrio, in whose project and support the C.A.M. of Bilbao collaborated.
In 1925, the Day of Savings began to be celebrated, with cash prizes being awarded to the most needy, as well as free performances of garments in the Monte de Piedad (Pawnbrokers' Fund). On 13 August of the same year, the Nuestra Señora de Begoña School Preventorio opened in Sukarrieta. It originally took in girls and boys with health problems over the age of nine and under the age of thirteen who had, themselves or their families, a school or ordinary school booklet. They could stay there for three or six months, as deemed necessary by the institution's doctor.
In 1926, the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza y Escuela Superior de Comercio Alfonso XIII was inaugurated, the building of which was paid for by the C.A.M.. Taking advantage of the solemn inauguration of this event, which was attended by the King and several ministers, an annual prize of 15,000 pesetas was instituted with the aim of helping a working class family whose father had died or suffered an accident at work that left him unable to work to buy a house.
The circulating school library service, which was provided on a rotating basis to as many schools as ed it. School cinema, a programme of film screenings in schools. Scholarships and study grants awarded to outstanding pupils in schools where school savings were introduced. This social work has been maintained over the years, including students in secondary education, university and other professional studies.
The Montepío de la Mujer que Trabaja was one of the most important social works of this savings bank, created in 1924 for mutualist purposes. The payment of a modest monthly fee entitled the member and her family members to medical and pharmaceutical care and covered assistance during childbirth. First a small dispensary was opened and later the Maternity and Surgery Clinic was set up in Plaza de Echaniz (December 1927), equipped with the most advanced facilities of its time. That year it had two thousand members, the Montepío was presided over by Asunción Barandiarán de Moyúa and a Board of Ladies and was run by the Sisters of Charity of Santa Ana. It was an idea already tested in the Caja de Ahorros Provincial de Guipúzcoa (see CAJA DE AHORROS PROVINCIAL DE GUIPUZCOA), which came just at the time when the maternity allowance was being introduced (1922-1931) and when the introduction of maternity insurance, which would become a reality in 1931, was being discussed.
It can be said that it was a Mutual Aid Society that provided, in addition to the services described above, marriage and funeral benefits. Full members received a daily allowance in the event of illness or childbirth during the compulsory rest period (one month before and one month after giving birth), and were also entitled to home help from another woman if she was unable to look after her home and family. The Montepío was supported by the funds of the Fund, the members' contributions, donations and bequests, plus the proceeds from paid services. Women the ages of 14 and 40 were admitted.
This Montepío was later transformed into the Women's and Children's Assistance Centre and, as happened with other social welfare projects of the other Cajas Vasco Navarras, the health extension provided first by the State and then by the Autonomous Community meant that these projects lost their original purpose and their services were transferred to the public sector.
Childcare services and the Gota de Leche (created in 1907) were services dependent on the City Council, which became social works of the Caja in 1928. A year later it would collaborate with the Instituto Anticanceroso de Vizcaya (1929).
The Casa de Familia or Residencia Villa Bilbao was opened under the patronage of the Caja in 1930. Run by the Sisters of Charity of Santa Ana, its purpose was to provide decent, honest and caring accommodation on its premises for women, whatever their state, and especially for young women who, because of their studies, employment and profession, needed to live away from their homes (I leave this long quotation as it appeared in the advertisement in the Caja Labor magazine in 1930, as it reflects the mentality of the time with regard to women). In this house they were on full board for which they paid 4 pesetas a day. There is no doubt that it fulfilled a social mission with considerable demand, as when it opened it had only 23 places, and shortly afterwards the building had to be extended to offer applicants a total of 50 places.
In 1932, the ‘Casa del Niño de Bermeo’ (Children's Home of Bermeo) was set up as a nursery to care for the children of women who worked in the canning factories or in the fishing industry. During the war it was converted into a hospital, but returned to its original purpose at the end of the war. Similar purposes were served by the nursery and nursery school of San Antonio, located in the Urazurrutia district of Bilbao.
Although this Savings Bank did not have a welfare section, which was exclusive to the Provincial Savings Banks, it collaborated with the Caja de Ahorros Vizcaina and the Instituto Nacional de Previsión in the support of the Homenajes a la Vejez and the Homenajes a la Vejez del Marino (Tributes to Old Age and Tributes to the Seafarer's Old Age). Other social works were the nursery schools in Bilbao and Bermeo, and the Work Competitions.