Maniolas

Jean Henri Lhuillier Cebuana Lhuillier holds the Guinness World Record for the largest number of pawnshops in the world, with close to 2,000 outlets—bigger than many banks combined. It serves mostly the ordinary “unbanked” population. Its president, Jean Henri Lhuillier, shares his thoughts on innovation. Question: How do you go about understanding your target consumers and what have you discovered about them? Answer: We know a lot about our clients, and the market we serve. We talk to our clients in so many ways, in our branches, through our customer care hotline and our digital platform. On top of this, we engage on a national scale UAI study, complemented by several consumer researches through FGD, etc. Our frontline people are there where the action is. We have an open feedback system. It’s important to receive constant feedback. They all have direct access via a dedicated e-mail address and contact numbers to me. I also believe in seeking direct information from my managers via the CEO lunches held wherein I would get to meet with the staff underneath the managers who directly report to me. Our market has changed significantly. The consumers have become more educated about the services and products they avail. They have become more discerning and perceptive, ever more conscious of value for money, customer service and quality. Q: Apart from pawnshops, your company also offers remittance, bills payment, collection, e-loading and insurance services. In fact, you have tie-ups with close to 100 other companies. Which of these Read More …

Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. Wednesday announced the retirement of Alfredo C. Ramos as president of both the company and its fully owned unit, Carmen Copper Corp. Adrian Paulino, Alfredo’s son and Atlas Mining executive vice president, takes over starting April 1. The father will remain chair of Carmen Copper. “Alfredo Ramos played a leading role in reviving a pillar of the Philippine mining industry,” the company said in a statement. “The entire Atlas Mining organization is grateful for his stewardship of the company, and expresses its full support for its new executive officers.” Adrian is concurrently director of Anglo Philippine Holdings Corp., The Philodrill Corp., United Paragon Mining Corp., Zenith Holdings Corp., and Berong Nickel Corp. In a board meeting held March 23, the directors of Atlas Mining also named Enrico C. Nera and Tristan B. Choa as executive vice presidents. Nera, who will also take office as chief operating officer, will be in charge of operations. A licensed metallurgical engineer, Nera used to be with the consultancy Minercon International, gold producer Philex Mining and international service provider Cytec Industries. Choa will be responsible for general support services. An industrial engineer, Choa used to work for Prudential Company Asia, Coca-Cola Export Corp. and Asian Alliance Investment Corp. Last week, Atlas Mining reported a 79-percent contraction in 2014 income to P397 million. This was much faster than the 45-percent drop recorded in 2013 when net income was pegged at P1.9 billion. In 2014, revenues jumped 12 percent to reach Read More …

MANILA, Philippines–Digital banking continues to gain significant ground in Asia, where nearly 700 million consumers were found to be using this platform regularly, given the rapid increase in Internet and smartphone adoption. In a report entitled “Digital Banking in Asia: What do consumers really want?” multinational management consulting firm McKinsey and Co. pointed out that in developed Asian markets, Internet banking was nearly universal and smartphone banking had grown more than threefold since 2011. In emerging Asian markets such as the Philippines, the trend was similarly dynamic, with about a quarter of consumers using computers and smartphones for their banking needs. “The rise of digital banking in Asia has been anticipated for many years, but several factors have combined recently to accelerate this trend. Among the most important changes is the presence of a much stronger ecosystem to enable digital banking, which includes the rapid increase in Internet and smartphone adoption and growth in e-commerce, resulting in the demand for digital banking moving from early adopters to a broad range of customers,” said the report’s co-authors Sonia Barquin and Vinayak HV. For this report, McKinsey conducted a survey from July to September 2014, during which the group polled about 16,000 financial consumers across 13 markets in Asia—including the Philippines—regarding their banking habits. Developed Asia comprised six economies namely Australia (where 700 respondents were polled); Hong Kong (750 respondents); Japan (750 respondents); Singapore (750 respondents); South Korea (750 respondents); and Taiwan (800 respondents). Emerging Asia, meanwhile, was composed of China (3,500 Read More …