Community Service 2009 Company of the Week

April 19, 2009

BancWest Corporation

California DFI Commissioner Bill Haraf, Bank of the West CAO, Paul Woolway and Operation Hope Western Regional Manager, Leo Cablayan

In celebration of April as Financial Literacy Month, volunteers from Bank of the West, BancWest’s largest subsidiary, partnered with various non-profit organizations, industry associations and government entities to empower over 800 youth with financial knowledge.

California Department of Financial Institutions Commissioner Bill Haraf joined Bank executives and Operation HOPE in educating 135 students at John Yehall Chin Elementary School, located in San Francisco’s Chinatown near Bank of the West’s headquarters.  The 3rd-5th grade students learned the importance of saving in honor of April 21st as ABA’s Teach Children to Save Day.

Bank of the West also partnered with Junior Achievement and the YMCA of the Silicon Valley to provide financial education to 200 youth attending the Y’s Campo Alegre—a week-long outdoor camp for low-income students set among the Santa Cruz, California redwoods.

In Denver, student athletes from six public schools participated in Operation Hope’s Banking on our Future financial education curriculum.  Taught by Bank of the West volunteers, these students learned the importance of budgeting, checking and savings accounts, credit and investments.

Bank of the West also participated in Money Smart Week by hosting 80 4th and 5th grade students from the Downtown Elementary School at a Bank of the West Branch in Des Moines, Iowa. Ben Franklin played by a character actor from the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago, taught the students about savings, compound interest and credit. 

Bank of the West looks forward to closing out Financial Literacy Month as a proud sponsor of  Financial Literacy Day on Capitol Hill organized by our Financial Services Roundtable’s Community Service 2009 partners, Jump$tart Coalition, Junior Achievement and the Council for Economic Education.

Click Here to view a list of our past Companies of the Week.