Author: Jun Ariolo Aguirre (305 Articles)

(Welcome remarks delivered by Deputy Director Leonora A. Siñel-Templonuevo of BSP Kalibo Branch during the BSP Financial Learning Campaign at ACP Centrepointe, Kalibo, Aklan on 20 November 2009)

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

We are very pleased to welcome you to the BSP’s Financial Learning Campaign for overseas Filipinos and their families here in Aklan. This activity, spearheaded by BSP in collaboration with the OWWA, was launched in Cebu City in February 2006 as part of the ongoing advocacy campaign geared at informing you about alternative uses of your hard-earned money, including savings, investments in financial products and business ventures. To date, we have conducted 34 Financial Learning Campaigns in key Philippine cities and regions – from Tuguegarao, Cagayan in the north to Zamboanga City in the south. In September last year, we launched the international leg of our Financial Learning Campaign in Hong Kong where a significant number of our overseas Filipinos work. Also last year in October, two Financial Learning Campaigns were held in Singapore to cater to the increasing number of professional and other skilled Filipino workers in that country. This year in March, we were invited by the Philippine Embassy in Korea to give a presentation on the BSP’s Financial Learning as part of their Financial Management Course. For this year, we have conducted 6 international roadshows: 3 in the key cities of Saudi Arabia (April), 2 in Italy and 1 in Rome (October). For this year, Aklan is the 10th place in the Philippines visited by the BSP, in our desire for this campaign to reach the OFWs and their beneficiaries. We continue to intensify our advocacy program by visiting seven other cities in the Philippines to reach out to more overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries.

Through the FLCs, the BSP aims to help channel remittances to more productive activities and cultivate the savings habit among overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries in preparation for their eventual reintegration into the economy (Remittances significantly grew from US$ 421 Million in 1980 to US$ 1.2 Billion in 1990 and more than US$ 6 Billion in the year 2000. In 2008, remittances reached a record-high of US$16.4 Billion. For this year, for the past eight (8) months, remittances have already reached more than US$ 10 Billion.) The beneficiaries – together with the overseas Filipinos – play an important role in developing this culture of saving.

We consider overseas Filipinos as our partners in ensuring sustained foreign exchange inflows. For this reason, we have formulated several measures to improve the remittance environment for overseas Filipinos.

First, we encourage banks and financial institutions to further reduce remittance fees charged to overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries. Second, in line with the BSP’s policy of promoting the efficient delivery of remittance services by banks and other remittance service providers, the BSP required banks and non-bank financial institutions to post the charges for their various remittance products, including classification of costs. The BSP also launched an OFW portal on 30 March 2007 in its website, containing the lists of countries where the Philippine financial institutions have market presence. Through these initiatives, the overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries will be able to compare across financial institutions and select the bank that offers the lowest remittance cost.

Third, the BSP in March 2006 authorized qualified rural banks/cooperative banks to operate a foreign currency deposit unit (FCDU), to provide overseas Filipinos with an option to maintain foreign currency deposits (FCD) instead of immediately exchanging their remittance proceeds into pesos. The BSP relaxed the customer identification requirement to one valid photo-bearing ID issued by an official authority. These two initiatives aim to expand access of Filipinos to services offered by formal financial institutions, including those residing in remote areas.

Overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries may also forward their banking and remittance complaints to the BSP’s Consumer Helpdesk in the BSP-Kalibo Branch.

At this point, let me welcome our distinguished speakers as well as resource persons from the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Agriculture, guests from the local banks in Aklan. They shall share with us their valuable insights and expertise on worthwhile investment options available to overseas Filipinos. We are also fortunate to have an OFW/ turned entrepreneur, to share her success story and serve as an inspiration to us. Lastly, but most importantly, I would like to thank you, our overseas Filipinos and your families, for finding time and taking the effort to join us today in what I hope will be a productive afternoon for all of us.

Allow me to open today’s affair with a short BSP poem to all overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries, which goes like this:
Perang padala, bigyan ng halaga;
Tipirin, palaguin, at pag-yamanin;
Para maganda, kinabukasan natin

Maraming salamat sa inyo