- SEC launches free online SEC Academy offering courses on saving, budgeting, investing, and scam awareness.
- Working with Congress to make financial literacy a mandatory high school subject.
- Move follows low literacy rates, with only 2% answering basic finance questions correctly and scams causing PHP 25B losses.
The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a new online educational platform to help improve financial literacy across the country. The move is part of a larger effort to make financial knowledge more accessible and to protect the public from scams and bad investments.
The upgraded 'SEC Academy' was officially introduced on November 12 at the SEC Headquarters in Makati City. The platform is free to use and offers online courses on personal finance, saving, budgeting, investing, and how to identify investment scams. These courses are taught by policymakers, government leaders, and industry experts, making reliable information available to anyone who wants to learn.
SEC Chairperson Francis Lim said the goal of the SEC Academy is to make financial education open to everyone students, employees, parents, and even retirees. “Financial education should not be for the few, but for everyone who dreams of a better life”, Lim said.
Beyond the online platform, the SEC is also working with Congress to make financial literacy a mandatory subject in high schools. Lim explained that this step is important because people who understand basic financial concepts are less likely to fall for scams. “A financially literate Filipino is a protected investor”, he added.
The initiative comes at a time when financial literacy levels in the Philippines remain low. A survey by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2023 found that only 2% of Filipinos could correctly answer six basic financial literacy questions. The BSP also reported that investment scams cost the country around PHP 25 billion in 2021.
With the SEC Academy and the push for financial education in schools, the Commission aims to 'make financial literacy part of our national culture'.
