Press Release
March 16, 2008

Jinggoy welcomes recruiters' support for proposed OFW bank

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada today welcomed the support expressed by recruiters on the move to establish an OFW Bank.

Estrada, concurrent chair of the Senate committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development and of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment, has a bill seeking the establishment of the Philippine Overseas Workers Bank that would help OFWs save on costs of remittance transactions and enable them to manage their money more effectively.

Jackson Gan, vice president of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters (FAME) which is the umbrella association of 12 organizations with a membership of 700 licensed recruitment agencies, said "it was high time for the OFWs to have their own bank that would serve their financial and investment needs," noting that "OFWs have suffered so much in the drop of their dollars' value to the peso."

FAME President Lita Hizon, for her part, said "an OFW bank could be beneficial to overseas migrant workers and their families as a conduit for remittances," but said she wanted more assurance the proposed OFW bank would not suffer the consequence that befell other commercial banks that collapsed due to bad loans.

"Hailed as modern-day heroes, OFWs, numbering to about 8.5 million spread in more than 100 countries, have been considered as one of the major forces in the labor front today. Their billions of dollars of remittances annually have become the country's single biggest source of foreign exchange. It is just fitting that we find ways to provide them with the means for lower-costing financial transactions, and enhance their income-generation capabilities as investors," Estrada said.

Estrada's bill proposes a capital stock of the bank at the amount of two billion pesos divided into two million shares largely to be subscribed by OFWs at the value of one thousand pesos each share.

"The Philippine Overseas Workers Bank will grant loans and other financial assistance preferably to OFWs, their spouses or heirs for development of agriculture and small and medium-scale commercial and industrial enterprises, and, to workers applying or re-applying for overseas employment to defray the payment of placement fees and other expenses," Estrada added.

The bank's board of directors, he said, would include officers and members of the different overseas workers' associations.

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