On BPI’s 165th year: BPI Foundation scales up support for national development

MANILA, Philippines - To celebrate its 165th year, the Bank of the Philippine Islands strengthens its commitment to the national development agenda by aligning the programs of its social development arm, the BPI Foundation, to better assist government initiatives in promoting inclusive growth.

The announcement was made at BPI Foundation’s #PartnerForProgress event last Aug. 25 where Vice President Leni Robredo was the guest of honor.

Robredo took occasion to discuss the national development agenda for poverty eradication and shared her five main advocacies of focus, including rural development, education, health, food security, and women empowerment. She also highlighted the key role companies and citizens played in helping achieve inclusive growth targets.

BPI commits to support the national government in these targets and explores ways to make the best happen for more Filipinos in need. The bank’s financial inclusion strategy provides for greater focus on the Self-Employed Micro Enterprise segment through BanKO, its microfinance vehicle, and in the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment through BPI Ka-Negosyo/SME.

“At the Ayala Group, we continue to look for opportunities to broaden access to our products and services with a view towards meeting the basic needs of a larger sector of the population. We believe we can play an important role through our business particularly in socialized housing, banking, telecommunications, water and more recently, education and healthcare,” said Fernando Zobel de Ayala, chairman of BPI Foundation and vice-chairman of BPI.

To equip Filipinos with tools to achieve financial wellness, BPI Foundation runs Manny and Me for elementary students, and reinforces it with BPI Shape for senior high school students. The programs on financial education are integrated into the K-12 curriculum in support of the Enhanced Basic Education Act (R.A. 10533). The foundation also makes available a series of modular learning materials on the fundamentals of financial education to targeted sectors, including overseas Filipinos, farmers, MS enterprises, etc.

As 99 percent of registered businesses in the Philippines are MSME, which employ over 60 percent of the country’s workforce, the foundation advocates and supports the identification and capacity development of social enterprises through its BPI Sinag program. BPI Sinag U promotes social entrepreneurship among university students in support of the Youth Entrepreneurship Act (R.A. 10679) and BPI Sinag Accelerate scales up social enterprises, including those working for agricultural, IP, and Muslim communities, in support of the Go Negosyo Act or R.A. 19644.

Sustainable countryside development cannot prosper without environmentally responsible agriculture. The BPI Sustainable Agriculture Program aims to address financing barriers among farming communities by establishing strategic partnerships and risk mitigants across value chain partners, government agencies and civic society to support the Agricultural Value Chain Financing Framework. Still in the pipeline are other relevant programs that include the introduction of financial literacy, agripreneurship, and climate-smart practicesto support the Rural Farm Schools Act, or R.A.10618.

Aside from celebrating BPI’s 165th anniversary, the event also marked the fifth anniversary of BPI Bayanihan para sa Inang Bayan, or BPI Bayan, an employee-volunteer program that mobilizes its 15,000-strong workforce as partners in national development.

BPI Bayan 2.0 espouses choice and flexibility, giving four modalities that cater to differing volunteer motivations of our employees, from hands-on volunteering, volunteering for foundation programs, employee group-driven volunteering, to social innovation through community immersion, where BPI employees can contribute more directly to the well-being of their communities.

“Today, we renew our commitment for BPI Bayan, now on its bigger and bolder iteration as BPI Bayan 2.0. We are now more relevant, and better equipped to meet national development goals as we seize the power of mobilizing our most valuable resource – our employees – to rise up to the challenge through the bayanihan spirit as partners for progress,” said Faye Corcuera, BPI Foundation executive director.