THE Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has been named the Best Sub-Custodian Bank in the Philippines in the 2008 Global Finance magazine survey. The survey measures the reliability of custody services provided in local markets and regions to global clients.

The bank, also known as BPI, said in a statement it is the only local bank to be accredited as a third-party custodian bank, and also the first bank to act as such through its Asset Management and Trust Group.  BPI’s accreditation as custodian was made possible due largely to its highly acceptable risk-based capital- adequacy ratio and recognized system of rating banks using six categories. These include capital adequacy, asset quality, management quality, earnings liquidity, and sensitivity to market risk.  BPI has the largest market capitalization among banks in the country and trades at a premium over its book value.

Global Finance editors and reporters, with input from expert sources, selected the winners from the institutions that reliably provide the best custody services in local markets and regions to global custodians. The criteria included customer relations, quality of service, competitive pricing, smooth handling of exception items, technology platforms, post settlement operations, business continuity plans (BCP) and knowledge of local regulations and market practices.  Winners were chosen from nine regions and 53 countries.

“At times like these, when markets are volatile and uncertain, subcustodians are called upon to provide intelligence on local markets and sudden changes in regulations and practices.  We have identified those banks that do the best job of providing the high-quality services, advice and assistance that today’s increasingly sophisticated customers have come to expect,” said Joseph Giarraputo, publisher of Global Finance. 

BPI won together with other banks best in their own countries like The Bank of New York Mellon (United States), HSBC (United Kingdom), Credit Suisse (Switzerland), DBS (Singapore), BNP Paribas (Netherlands), Maybank (Malaysia), Deutsche Bank (Germany) and ICBC (China), among others.

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The government sold all P6 billion worth of Treasury bills at 8.7 basis points lower than the rate two weeks earlier.

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PNB completes Tier 2 notes issuance; offer is oversubscribed

THE Philippine National Bank (PNB) closed its lower Tier 2 notes offer with P9 billion in total orders, or three times the original P3 billion it offered.

THE Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has been named the Best Sub-Custodian Bank in the Philippines in the 2008 Global Finance magazine survey. The survey measures the reliability of custody services provided in local markets and regions to global clients.

THE board of directors of lender Makati Finance Corp. has approved the declaration of stock dividends worth P2.26 million payable to shareholders as of July 17, 2008, the firm said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.