SECURITY Bank Corp. (SBC) has sold a total of 89.3 million new common shares to eligible shareholders, completing its stock- rights offering that raised P2.5 billion in fresh capital for expansion.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the midsize lender said shareholders had bought a total of 86.87 million shares during the first round of the offer and another batch consisting of 2.4 million shares in the second round.

THE peso appears to be more resilient now to the country’s budget-deficit woes, staying on Thursday within a familiar range and is projected to appreciate further toward the 44-per-US dollar level by the end of 2010.

The government on Wednesday announced the deficit had ballooned to P266 billion as of end-October, exceeding the full-year deficit ceiling of P250 billion, and may widen further to P300 billion by end-2009.

Nonprofit microfinance entities under the Microfinance Council of the Philippines Inc. (MCPI) urged regulators to exempt them from all tax impositions in exchange for an all-inclusive 2-percent tax on gross income.

MCPI president Ruben de Lara explained that as nongovernment organizations (NGOs), their members perform a service rather than engage in a business where money is the ultimate goal.

Lara then urged House ways and means committee chairman Exequiel Javier to craft the proposed legislation in a manner consistent with this view and honor a service that has a P9-billion loan portfolio benefiting some 1.7 million Filipino households.