Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is a worthy winner of this award. At the heart of the bank’s philanthropic efforts is its BPI Foundation, which touches the lives of more than one million financially under-served Filipinos in 75 of the country’s 81 provinces.
A core tenet of the foundation is the pursuit of better financial literacy. According to a 2022 report by the World Bank and the George Washington University School of Business, between 40% to 50% of adults are financially literate, putting the Philippines on a level with the likes of Mongolia.
FinEd Unboxed is the foundation’s key financial education platform. It seeks to improve financial literacy levels among migrant domestic workers, public officials, farmers and fishing communities. The aim is to improve their individual and collective ability to save, budget, invest, manage credit and plan for retirement. To date, more than 750,000 people have benefited from sessions carried out by BPI bankers and experts, which also focus on ways to protect against financial fraud and scams.
Another key scheme is Sinag, a programme that nurtures and empowers social entrepreneurs (SEs), by helping them to scale up businesses profitably and sustainably. BPI has a longstanding partnership with Philippine real estate firm Ayala Land, which gives participating business owners access to Ayala malls nationwide. In February 2023, the foundation organized the second SE Summit, bringing together around 2,000 business owners with various BPI stakeholders.
“As the social development arm of BPI, we are in the business of doing good – focused on creating a financial wellness culture for our underserved segments and communities,” says BPI Foundation executive director Owen Cammayo. “We believe that a financial wellness culture is key in building a better Philippines – one that is inclusive and sustainable.”
There is so much to admire about the work of the bank and its foundation. In 2022, it extended financial support to 90,000 students at 60 public schools scattered across the country. And it continued to support a scholarship programme that helps families of medical front-line personnel who died during the pandemic.
The foundation also published a free 65-page handbook in Tagalog and English that uses case studies – all of them sourced from Sinag alumni – that show social enterprises how to embark on a “purposeful journey toward sustainable economic and social impact.”
Cammayo calls the guidebook: “A thoughtful, comprehensive book based on the various experiences of our Sinag SEs, who have gone through their highs and lows while maintaining their social aims.”
A financial wellness culture is key in building a better Philippines – one that is inclusive and sustainable
Owen Cammayo
Other worthy programmes abound. Under its Lakbay Luntian scheme, 125 hectares of bare land were reforested last year in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija and Dumanjug Cebu, in partnership with the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation and poverty alleviation charity Bambuhay, giving employment to farmers. Farm to Table is a programme that teaches farmers and fishermen how to utilize sustainable practices; it also includes lessons on financial literacy.
Another new programme launched in 2022, the Small Enterprise Acceleration Lab, teaches entrepreneurs how to scale up a company and apply for loans.
Adopt-a-Beneficiary, meanwhile, is a five month-long financial wellness mentorship programme for select individuals from various communities. In 2022, 127 volunteers from BPI served as mentors to 19 beneficiaries who graduated from the scheme. Another notable new social innovation unveiled last year by the foundation was Breakthrough, a financial education mobile game application that teaches adults how to plan for the future. As of February 2023, around 7,000 people had downloaded the app.
