BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s largest bank, is open to consolidating with other banks to take advantage of scale and other business opportunities.
BDO Chairman Teresita Sy Coson said the bank is always open to scale up its business and not closing its mind for another chance at higher growth or earnings.
“We’re open to any kind of consolidation depending on where the opportunity is. Yes, there are some well-known big banks that are coming in and there also are opportunities for consolidating here among ourselves. We’re open to any model. Were not closing our minds,” the lady executive told the BusinessMirror.
When asked if she sees opportunity for partnering with a foreign bank, say, a Japanese bank, she replied, “It depends. We’re not specific toward that direction, but we’re always open,” she said at the sidelines of the Forbes Global CEO Conference held on Tuesday.
She was confident the Philippines will continue to expand in the coming years.
She also said consumer lending remains robust, although its growth is not as fast as last year’s.
She reiterated the growth trend will continue next year and the years after that.
“The economy is good. We will get 6-percent GDP growth by the end of the year. For next year, let’s see what the government would say,” she said.
She said business has been good and felt whoever wins at the presidential races would not matter.
“All presidents have strengths and weaknesses it’s hard to say what characters would be advantageous to us. It’s hard to say how politics should move. I can only tell how business should move,” she said.
With all the external developments happening all at once, she said businesses just need to be prepared.
“The norm this time is to always anticipate the uncertainty and volatility of the global economy. You just have to be aware of all the volatilities and the uncertainties in the global area and be prepared for it,” she said.
She also said a lot of businesses have prepared for the US interest-rate hike as the anticipated event has been highlighted for some time now.
“For BDO, its business as usual. Interest rate goes up and down so we have to work along the trend. They are saying that interest rate may go up, so there will be more outflow of funds in equities. But we have a good business here. I guess the business should still be functioning as usual. The bottom line is, it’s business as usual. Just be prepared for it,” she said.
Coson, likewise, said there was a lot of anxiety the past few weeks centering on the China economy
“They already factored the depreciation of the renminbi and also the downward trend of the Chinese economy. In the Philippines we don’t have a lot of business with China because of our territorial dispute and maybe that has helped us a bit. Whatever is happening in China, I guess our economy will still be okay,” she said.
As for the currency volatility, she sees the need for corporate clients with overseas transactions to purchase financial hedges.
“Most of the businesses that we have are in peso denomination. I don’t see the need to hedge unless their business is outside the Philippines. At this point, it’s a matter of making sure that their numbers are going to be better than the perceived interest-rate increase,” she said.