Bank of Guam awarded for corporate social responsibility programme

The Asian Banking & Finance Retail Banking Awards have honoured the Bank of Guam with a Corporate Social Responsibility silver nod for its high school financial literacy programme ‘Mad City Money,’ decided on by a panel of representatives from each of the Big Four firms.

The annual Asian Banking & Finance Retail Banking Awards have been issued for 2018, with over 200 banks and insurance companies recognised from nearly 40 countries across Asia and the Middle East. Among the award-winners was the Bank of Guam, acknowledged with a silver award in the Corporate Social Responsibility of the Year category for its high school financial simulation program, ‘Mad City Money’.

The four man judging-panel for the 2018 awards was comprised of a representative from each of the Big Four accounting and consulting firms; PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY. The members of the panel were; Andrew Taggart, Financial Services Leader for PwC Southeast Asia Consulting; Mohit Mehrotra, Monitor Deloitte Co-leader for Asia Pacific; Liew Nam Soon, Managing Partner for EY ASEAN, and; Egidio Zarrella, ASPAC Head of Banking and Capital Markets for KPMG based out of Hong Kong.

The quartet of judges from the Big Four were responsible for the allocation of some 250 trophies in total, with the awards – now in their 13th year – celebrated at a ceremony event held at the Shangri La in Singapore earlier this month and attended by over 300 banking and insurance industry executives. “Whilst the rest of the world is occupied with the World Cup, tonight is a night to recognise banks who are well deserving of their recognition,” said Tim Charlton, publisher of the Asian Banking & Finance and Insurance Asia magazines.Just pipped in the Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year category by the repeat gold awardee BDO Unibank of the Philippines, The Bank of Guam from the tiny Micronesian territory in the Western Pacific can be proud of its silver – awarded to the bank for its efforts in promoting financial literacy to local youth through its ‘Mad City Money’ simulation, which has which has since 2016 reached over 2,100 high-school students throughout Guam, Saipan and Palau.

“Our bank was started 46 years ago to provide opportunity to our local community,” said Bank of Guam’s acting president Maria Eugenia H. Leon Guerrero. “A big part of that is promoting financial literacy and awareness at all levels, particularly our children. Today, Bank of Guam’s community outreach and financial literacy efforts are unmatched as our employees continue to make a difference in the lives of young adults throughout our region. We are humbled to receive such recognition from an esteemed panel of judges.”

Winners in some of the other all-regional categories included; ​CitiBank Singapore for International Retail Bank of the Year - Asia Pacific; DBS Bank (Taiwan) with gold for Employer of the Year; Hong Leong Finance for ASEAN Finance Company of the Year; OCBC Bank as ASEAN SME Bank of the Year; Nishit Majmudar of ​insurance and investment firm Aviva in Singapore as CEO of the Year, and; Anicom Holdings, for Domestic Pet Insurer of the Year.