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.
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