There is now a bank dedicated to Overseas Filipino Workers

Photo from ABS-CBN News.
Photo from ABS-CBN News.

To better serve the millions of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) around the world, the government launched a bank yesterday that will specialize in helping them out with their financial needs.

The Overseas Filipino Bank (OFB) is located in the PostBank Center in Manila and will act as a subsidiary of the government-owned Land Bank, which acquired the Philippine Postal Savings Bank in October.

“Through the Overseas Filipino Bank, we give back what is due our kababayans abroad through a bank specially dedicated to servicing their banking and financing requirements,” Duterte said in a statement.

Apart from regular services like deposits and loans, an offering OFWs can benefit a lot from are the investment schemes that will help them take advantage of the country’s capital markets.

The Philippine economy relies heavily on remittances from OFWs who collectively send billions of pesos yearly to their families left at home. However, many OFWs remain poor because they are not financially savvy and usually have families who are too dependent on the money they send.

OFB is a fulfillment of one of  President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign promises. He is very popular with OFWs because he prioritized their needs in his platform. Apart from the bank, the president also promised a one-stop shop for anything an OFW might need like passport services, competency assessments, and documents like licenses and departure clearances.

And it’s not just OFWs (usually defined as contract workers) who can benefit from the new bank. Other Filipinos based abroad, like those with resident visas in other countries, can invest through the bank as well.

According to ABS-CBN News, the government plans to open foreign representative offices for the bank in countries with a high concentration of OFWs. Offices are set to open in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Bahrain later this year.



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