DoubleDragon Properties Corp. (DoubleDragon) is targeting to build 1 million square meters (sq m ) of leasable space through the roll-out of commercial projects that would bring in P4.8 billion in net profit by 2020.
RISING interest rates in the US will make it difficult for emerging-market (EM) countries to attract capital to their shores and subject their currencies to increasing pressure, according to Swiss financial services giant UBS.
Philippine National Bank (PNB) has sold its 51-percent stake in life insurer PNB Life to Munich-based Allianz S.E. to form a joint venture called Allianz PNB Life Insurance Inc.
The Chamber of Thrift Banks (CTB) said consumer lending should continue to be strong and that local interest rates were not likely to move up after the US Fed raised the federal funds rate from near-zero for the first time in seven years.
Parent lender China Banking Corp. (China Bank) has approved the P2-billion capital infusion into China Bank Savings Inc. (CBSI), bringing the combined total capital of CBSI and Planters Development Bank (PDB) to P6.1 billion.
The likelihood of an interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve happening soon has jumped as high as 80 percent, according to a poll conducted by Sun Life Asset Management Company Inc. (Slamci).
Philippine Axa Life Insurance Corp. (AXA Philippines) anticipates P20 billion in total premium income by year-end on the basis of the strong expansion of its bancassurance business.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the incorporation of China Bank Capital Corp., the investment banking subsidiary of China Banking Corp.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), ranked ninth largest by assets among private banks and fourth or fifth in the remittance business, looks to scale back its remittance cost to win a larger portion of the multibillion-dollar market.
THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is issuing new regulations on cybersecurity to ensure the banking industry’s preparedness against threats of sophisticated and more coordinated cyberattacks.
THE Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) acknowledged over the long weekend difficulty in selling its thrift unit, the GSIS Family Bank, but vowed not to stop looking for a solution finally disposing of one of its more prominent nonperforming assets.
The prospective ratification of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) by the Senate should prove sufficient to suspend particular bank-secrecy provisions and compel local lenders to share account holder information with US tax authorities.
SMALL and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Japan have shown strong interest in investing in the Philippines following the supportive stance of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to President Aquino during the just concluded conference of leaders in Manila.
The World Bank is completing preparation for the roll out of a microlending program for Muslim Filipinos consistent with the tenets of Islam, according to the Bureau of Muslim Economic Affairs (BMEA).
The remittance company Opportunity Kauswagan Remit Inc. (OK Remit Inc.) said billions of pesos could be made by tapping even the low-income segment of the business, particularly in the rural areas.
The Philippines has sufficient insulation against foreign exchange-driven shocks as the country’s foreign-currency assets have since exceeded liabilities, according to the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co (Metrobank).
Asia United Bank (AUB) has concluded its P5-billion unsecured subordinated Basel 3-compliant Tier-2 notes
issue that will allow the bank to strengthen its capital base.
The local banking sector remains healthy as shown by the robust loan growth and continued profitability of its members, according to Fitch Ratings.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said rural banks need to become better, be more competitive and take pains to ensure services are actually delivered as competition among second- and third-tier lenders heat up.
‘I wish I was like them when I was 25 years old. These people have their whole world in front of them,” said BPI President and CEO Cezar P. Consing.Consing, now 56 years old, was referring to the young social entrepreneurs who joined the first-ever BPI Sinag on Tuesday. “I envy them,” he said.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved the request of East West Banking Corp. to exercise a call option on P1.5 billion worth of notes on January 2, 2016, to comply with capital requirements and roll out investment plans.
The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) reported on Thursday a 30-percent growth in cash-accepting machine (CAM) transactions, showing that consumer preferences are changing and are shifting to digital-banking services.
Ten major banks have participated in the P31.97-billion syndicated loan to finance Therma Visayas Inc.’s new 300-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Cebu.
BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s largest bank, is open to consolidating with other banks to take advantage of scale and other business opportunities.
The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has passed the 1-million mark for mobile-banking users and targets to acquire at least half of the lender’s clients over the next five years.
China Banking Corp. (China Bank) has aimed for a 10-percent growth in net income to P5.621 billion this year on sustained growth in core lending.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved the P500-million equity investment of EastWest Banking Corp. in joint venture with insurer Ageas Life.
SOME of the country’s commercial lenders, particularly those that focus on consumption lending, get far more loan applications than they can process and have their hands full dispensing housing, cars and credit-card loans.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) is raising its equity stake in its microlending subsidiary Merchants Savings and Loan Association Inc. (MCSLA) and in RCBC Leasing and Finance Corp. (RLFC).
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) has asked Japan’s so-called megabanks to explore transport infrastructure finance opportunities in the Philippines.
The Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) plans to sell up to $400 million in so-called senior notes whose proceeds the lender will use to finance various undertakings while taking advantage of cheaper interest costs prevailing at the moment. The proposed sale forms part of an earlier authority to sell $1 billion worth in medium-term notes (MTN).
BDO Unibank (BDO) has set up its office in Dubai as part of its strategy to expand its foothold in the growing overseas Filipino market in the Middle East.
THE peso remains under pressure from a strong US dollar coupled with fears of the China economy’s hard landing, but the First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC) sees improvement once the remittances of overseas Filipino workers start pouring in November and December.
The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said the Philippines is well-positioned to weather potential risks should the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) decide on an interest-rate hike in December or January next year as expected.
Strong investor interest has emboldened the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) to increase a syndicated loan program from a diverse group of international banks from an initial $200 million to $280 million on Monday.
Visa Inc. has developed a card-protection feature that makes use of palm, voice, iris, or facial biometrics to verify EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) chip card transactions.
AN increasing number of the country’s small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) have created space for themselves abroad and have marketed their products overseas with greater vigor such that loans at the BPI Family Savings Bank, the thrift-bank arm of the universal lender Bank of the Philippine Islands, were seen hitting P200 billion by the end of the year.
The proposal of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to lift particular provisions of the Bank Secrecy law for tax purpose has gained support from among the legislators and banking industry players.
BPI Asset Management sees a weaker peso versus the US dollar this coming week, brought by uncertainty over the US Federal Reserve’s (the Fed) decision to hike interest rates in its September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
Very few of the country’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have taken advantage of technology and have exploited, for example, the potential presented by e-commerce or the Internet-driven business model.
THE Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) is seen trading at the 6,600 level to 7,200 level this year and 7,600 to 8,200 next year, according to BPI Securities Corp.
The Department of Finance (DOF) has given government agencies one year to transfer their deposit accounts to government financial institutions (GFIs), as part of an ongoing streamlining under the so-called treasury single account (TSA) system.
STATE-OWNED Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) recently made an out-of-pocket expense totaling P22.084 million to a multilateral for having failed to deploy hundreds of millions of pesos in loans intended for borrowers in the agriculture sector the past three years.
The Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) projects accelerated government spending for infrastructure in the last quarter of the year to help push local output growth, measured as the gross domestic product (GDP), to 6 percent for this year.
THE Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) is expected to trade between 6,850 and 7,150, with local export figures and further developments in the US being the main catalysts.
Asia United Bank Corp. (AUB) on Tuesday announced its proposed acquisition of Pinoy Express Pte. Ltd. (Pinoy Express), a remittance company duly registered in Singapore.
The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) anticipates making lucrative business out of pension products as the average age of Filipinos pushes higher and retirement among the working population recedes further down the line.
THE World Bank said the Philip-pines is in a position to partake of the trillion-dollar global Islamic financing market, as interest in the instrument has risen sharply in recent years.
THE Philippines was seen to renew effort at engaging China, even as it strengthens further its economic ties with Japan when the world’s leaders meet in November during the Apec 2015 Summit.
THE country’s lenders look more and more toward the provinces for new markets and increasingly less in the urban centers as competition from foreign banks heat up, analysts at Maybank ATR said
MAYBANK ATR Kim Eng expects the Philippine banking industry to post a 12-percent growth in core net income this year, as it focuses on consumer lending, “where margins are fatter and penetration is low.”
Mindanaoans have pushed for the expansion of Islamic banking and the development of Shariah-compliant products and services in the Philippines.
Visa Inc., Union Bank, Metrobank and humanitarian aid organization Oxfam have delivered an innovative payments solution to disaster-affected areas as part of the government’s financial inclusion program. They have teamed up to create a multifunctional electronic prepaid system that enables the quick, secure and transparent disbursement of disaster aid in the Philippines.
Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank), Asean’s fourth-largest bank by assets, projects growth averaging 7 percent for the Philippines this year, driven in the main by the country’s so-called large demographic dividend.
China Banking Corp. (China Bank) is injecting P1-billion capital in the merged entities China Bank Savings Inc. (CBS) and Planters Development Bank (Plantersbank) to boost the lender’s capital adequacy to the level required by regulation.
The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is seeking board approval to ramp up its overseas- equity placements 20 percent to 30 percent higher than it is at present.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has issued Notice of Charge against treasury officials of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for alleged losses arising from the sale of P876.712 million worth of government securities.
THE Chamber of Thrift Banks (CTB) said the thrift-banking industry continues to perform well, as consumer lending and deposit-taking posted strong double-digit growth in the first half of the year.
THE government Service Insurance System (GSIS) plans to increase its exposure to the foreign-equities market by up to 30 percent of its investible funds from the current 20 percent.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that need investment financing borrow more from nonbanks than banks because they generally lack the financial documents required by banks.
FOREIGN banks coming in for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) integration may face difficulty in penetrating the credit-card markets in the region, which are largely dominated by top local banks, Metrobank Card Corp. (MCC) President Riko Abdurrahman said.
Consumption activities among Filipinos have changed in recent years such that household expenses have become more discretionary than usual as a result of consumers becoming more liquid, according to a study conducted by a lender’s trust unit.
Philippine Savings Bank (PS Bank), the thrift bank arm of the Metrobank Group, reported net income of P1.13 billion in the first six months, slightly higher by 0.17 percent than last year’s P1.128 billion.
The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) anticipates completing within the year the proposed amendments to the PDIC charter.
THE Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) reported net income of P9.3 billion in the first six months or half, 16 percent higher than the P8 billion generated in the same period last year, and a demonstration of its continued growth even as it builds a deeper relationship with its clients.
Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Berhad (EXIM Bank) targets to grow lending to Malaysian companies expanding in the Philippines and provide financing for Filipino companies buying Malaysian products.
BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO), the most dominant bank in the country, has raised $500 million from a diverse group of international banks forming part of a syndicate of lenders willing to extend it a three-year loan.
BPI Capital Corp. (BPI Capital) played an important role in the success of Aboitiz-Equity Ventures’s (AEV) P24-billion retail bonds which were well received by retail investors.
BDO Unibank, the most dominant lender in the country, has managed to establish only one other presence within the Asean, a performance dwarfed by Malaysian rival Maybank, for example, which has eight, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said.
The Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) is eyeing a strong double-digit growth in its small and medium enterprise (SME) lending operations, as the positive effects of the country’s economic expansion trickle down to small businesses in the countryside.
Philippine banks compare favorably with the rest of the banks in the Asean no matter that they are among the smallest in the region.
By Genivi Factao
Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc is confident that the industry will hit P240 billion to P250 billion in premium income by the end of the year.
SECURITY Bank Corp. registered a net income of P4.657 billion in the first half of 2015, higher by 29 percent over the P3.6 billion the bank made in the same period last year, despite thin margins brought by competition.
JPMorgan Securities Singapore said Philippine banks were likely to post a decline in net income in the second quarter, even as return on equity (ROE) should improve in the succeding quarters.
BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) reported a 6.2-percent increase in net income to P11.741 billion in first half, higher than the P11.055 billion recorded in same period last year on robust core income growth.
The global payments technology company Visa Inc. said robust domestic consumption and expanded use of electronic payments products added an estimated P16 billion to the country’s local output, or the gross domestic product, between 2008 and 2012, according to Moody’s Analytics.
DESPITE the administrative burden of granting loans to small and medium enterprise (SMEs), outlook on SME loan growth remains positive, on the back of business expansions under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) integration.
The Philippine Business Bank Inc. (PBB), having earlier acquired two smaller rivals, has purchased another lender in Bataan province for P63.9 million.
The Industrial Guarantee and Loan Fund (IGLF), a unit of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), has failed to disburse the full amount of its target for microloans totaling P1.2 billion.
The National Reinsurance Corp. of the Philippines (NRCP) is seeking mandatory risk cover on some 40 million households across the country against so-called catastrophic events.
BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) has completed its acquisition of One Network Bank Inc. (ONB), the country’s largest rural bank with a strong presence in Mindanao.
THE Credit Information Corp. (CIC) already has the guidelines in place by which the various credit bureaus may be accredited.
The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is up to its ears in frustration with its thrift bank unit, where it has invested millions for many years and reported everything, but making money on the venture.
The Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life) remains confident on the growth of its insurance business this year, seen driven by an expanded sales force and by its bancassurance business.
The various insurers should have no trouble selling at least P200 billion worth of policies this year as targeted, particularly the nonlife companies, the National Reinsurance Corp. of the Philippines (PhilNaRe) said.
More and more Filipinos have migrated from cash transactions when making purchases and embraced the electronic payments system such as those represented by debit cards in recent years, the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said on Wednesday.
The Chamber of Thrift Banks (CTB) considers the three-year rule insufficient to establish the creditworthiness of bank borrowers and has asked this be lengthened to five years at the very least.
By Genivi Factao
AS the global market players continue to track the developments in Greece’s referendum this Sunday, the Philippines should be watchful also on the possible contagion.
CTBC Bank (Philippines) Corp., a subsidiary of Taiwan’s CTBC Bank and Manulife.
Asia United Bank (AUB) President Abraham Co projected net income significantly better this year than last on the back of economic growth expected at accelerate to 6.5 percent in terms of the gross domestic product.
THE Philippines is lagging behind other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) both in attracting banks into the country and in penetrating the banking market in the region.
