Maniolas

Changes in business and technology in the financial services industry have opened up new possibilities. With the rapidly growing number of customer interactions through digital banking, there is a huge volume of customer data now available that can provide strategic opportunities for business growth and tremendous prospects for improved management tools.

TACLOBAN CITY — The Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) will not extend the $214-million Secondary National Roads Development Project (SNRDP) in the Samar provinces, due for completion on May 25 next year, amid delays encountered by the infrastructure program.

Greek flags fly over central Metropoleos square in Athens. AP/Yorgos Karahalis ATHENS, Greece — Greece repaid a roughly 450 million euro ($485-million) loan instalment to the International Monetary Fund due Thursday — easing concerns, for now, of a potential default as Athens faces a cash crunch. The IMF debt stems from Greece’s international bailout, under which the country was extended 240 billion euros in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the IMF to prevent bankruptcy. Athens’ growing financial problems had renewed fears the country might miss the IMF payment and even have to leave the eurozone. Greece’s new left wing-led government has been locked in negotiations with creditors since winning elections in January on pledges to abolish the deeply resented budget austerity measures required by the rescue program. The creditors are insisting on the reforms, however, and want an agreement on them before they unfreeze Greece’s rescue loans, which have been on hold since August. A last installment of the bailout worth 7.2 billion euros is pending. Finance Minsiter Yanis Varoufakis, speaking at a conference in Paris on Thursday, said Greece was committed to a fiscal plan that made sense, but that the government would not sign a deal just to get the bailout tranche. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “The only way I know that you can impress upon the other side of the negotiating process that you mean business, that you want to change the conversation, is by saying: Folks, we are not Read More …

He is not going to resign, nor will he be impeached. So let us stop wasting time and energy on this unproductive rant and give him the last 15 months to prove that he can manage and lead the country as we all hoped when we voted him into office. “Daang Matuwid” is a great tag line, but nobody mentioned the ruts and cracks along the way that need to be filled if we are to make progress down this road. These are the sort of things that may seem small in the scale of things that are important to governing a fractious country. In truth, these are all that matters for the majority of Filipinos and it is what shapes their perception of what good government is all about. That permits and licenses are issued promptly and with the minimum of fuss, that garbage is collected, that trains run on time, that they don’t get mugged coming home from work and that basic health care is available, etc. In other words, things that make daily life to be a little less burdensome through the effective provision of the basic public services that the respective government agencies are mandated to perform. And this effectiveness boils down to a matter of good and effective management of these agencies. Unfortunately, mismanagement seems to be more prevalent in many government agencies. And one that seems to be the poster boy of them all is the DOTC which is proving to be one such Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is set to issue a circular reminding all banks and non-bank financial institutions to submit complete credit information to the Credit Information Corp. (CiC). The CiC is a government-owned and controlled corporation that would be the lead provider of independent, reliable and accurate credit information in the Philippines. It was created in 2008 by Republic Act (RA) 9510, otherwise known as the Credit Information System Act (CISA). CiC president and chief executive officer Jaime P. Garchitorena said the BSP circular merely reiterates and serves as a reminder to the banking system of its duty to submit to the government bureau both positive and negative credit information. “The BSP circular also benefits the monetary regulator since we are servicing the same industry, and that it will likewise benefit from the global view of the credit risk profile of the country’s banking industry,” he said. He likewise reminded that under RA 9510, the CiC could penalize institutions violating the law. The credit bureau’s principal supervisor is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Garchitorena said the CiC would first focus on the banking industry and all non-bank financial institutions under the BSP supervision, before expanding to other industries including insurance, credit cooperatives, financial companies and institutions, utility companies and other businesses that extend loans. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Thirty-three institutions and companies have already signed up, and another 20 are undergoing data format revisions and reviews. “We expect roughly Read More …