Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) and DiskarTech have inked a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Department of Education (DepEd) to help Filipinos understand and appreciate the value of financial technology and inclusive digital finance.
In a virtual MOA signing together with other DepEd stakeholders and partners, RCBC’s DiskarTech presented its plans for a massive, grassroots financial education campaign starting with the implementation of a curriculum-based digital finance study program that will be integrated next school year in the lessons of the senior high school students nationwide, especially those who are taking the Accounting, Business and Management (ABM) strand.
Dubbed as the Aralin sa Madiskarteng Pananalapi (Lessons in Resourceful Finance), the program puts a special focus on discussions and classroom activities that explore the concepts of digitalization, inclusive digital finance and financial technology. The program also aims to promote a deeper understanding of what RCBC has identified as the five pillars of financial inclusion: payments, insurance, savings, investments, and loans.
“We have taken it as part of our mission to accompany our countrymen in this journey towards financial inclusion. We dream of a day when our unbanked and underserved sectors will soon become fully banked individuals; that each Filipino household has taken the values of saving up and investing to heart. This starts with a grassroots financial education strategy,” said Lito Villanueva, RCBC executive vice president and chief innovation and inclusion officer.
On DepEd’s part, the partnership and program will not only benefit the learners but the whole educational system including the teachers and other stakeholders.
“RCBC has always been very helpful to us. The important thing that RCBC is doing is in financial literacy and these programs have to be continued. The laws on senior high school say that the learners have to be taught financial literacy. But not only should the learners be taught financial literacy but the teachers themselves so that the learners will take the cue and example from the teachers also. All of us have to be taught financial literacy,” said DepEd secretary Leonor Briones.
The integration of the said program is also a step forward to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) vision of a “digital Philippines.” Through an effective financial education and digital literacy strategy and program, the BSP and RCBC believes that this program will also help Filipinos to maximize the services banks and other financial institutions offer, and that they are also empowered to rise above financial exclusion.
“In the end, we want every Filipino learner to find their own diskarte as early as senior high school, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed for them to soon experience asenso at ginhawa. We believe that almost everything in digital banking innovation, supported by a strong grassroots financial education strategy, is within reach, hence echoing our DiskarTech mantra: Halos lahat pwede,” said RCBC president and CEO Eugene Acevedo.
