EastWest teaches financial literacy to seafarers

MANILA, Philippines - East West Banking Corp. (EastWest Bank) and the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines (BMAP) hosted a financial education classes for seafarers recently at the Mariners’ Polytechnic Training Center in Malate, Manila. The free financial literacy classes ran weekly for one month and tackled various aspects of investments, and financial planning and management. EastWest aims to empower mariners with information that will help them ensure that each hard-earned remittance is managed wisely. There have been many unfortunate stories before about seafarers working long and hard only to end up with no substantial savings and investments. Approximately 20 percent of the 1.2-million seafarers around the world are Filipinos and their remittances amount to more than $1 billion annually.