SAN CARLOS Solar Energy, Inc. (Sacasol) has obtained an additional P500 million worth of funding from a local lender to finance more projects, its parent firm announced in a statement.
May 072015
Feb 012014
MANILA, Philippines – COL Financial Group Inc. has partnered with two of the largest asset managers in the country, allowing the leading online stockbroker to broaden its lineup of financial products. The move will also help increase the customer base of the online brokerage firm as it offers unit investment trust funds (UITFs) and mutual funds, company officials said. In separate disclosures, COL Financial said it entered into agreement with the asset management arm of Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and Sun Life Asset Management Co. Inc. (SLAMCI). COL Financial said it signed a memorandum of agreements with BPI-Asset Management and Trust Group “with respect to the participation of the company in certain funds of BPI for the benefit and account of the company’s clients.” “We will start offering in our online platform the fund of BPI, particularly UITF. This will expand the products we offer to clients,” COL Financial president and CEO Conrado Bate said in a phone interview. COL Financial will be a distributor of BPI’s UITF, an investment scheme that allow the pooling of investors’ funds to achieve a certain objective. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Managed by professional fund managers from a bank’s trust group, UITFs are invested in various financial instruments like money market securities, bonds and equities. “This puts us one step closer to allowing COL Financial clients to purchase funds online. This should benefit clients as it makes it easier to both buy and sell funds,” April Read More …
Aug 182013
MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) may tweak its 2015 inflation target of two to four percent in order to keep up with a foreseen volatile interest rate environment, the Bank of the Philippine Islands said. “In keeping with its desire to fulfill its dual mandate of price stability and financial stability, the BSP may consider widening its 2015 inflation target, a move that will be widely accepted by the market,” BPI Economics and Financial Markets Research said in a commentary. “BSP may resort to invoking flexibility and widen its inflation target to avoid a volatile interest rate environment, a scenario which could emerge with its pre-set 2015 inflation target of two to four percent,” it said. The bank explained the 2015 inflation target may be “incompatible” with the central bank’s preferred “middle-of-the-pack” stance for the peso. This “middle-of-the-pack” stance, which means the BSP is keeping the peso from veering away from the movement of other regional currencies, is seen to have a pass-through impact on inflation, the bank noted. “BSP’s more flexible exchange rate policy, embodied in their efforts to keep USD/PHP in the middle of the regional pack will likely lead to an upward adjustment in the BSP’s 2015 inflation target, which will in turn, enable monetary policy authority to keep interest rates stable in the next 18 months,” BPI said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The BSP sees inflation to fall within the three to five percent target this year Read More …
Jun 282013
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life) has launched two new unit-linked products (ULP) in its life insurance line in a bid to boost its premium income this year. ULPs are life insurance products laced with investment instruments, otherwise referred to as protection and savings/investment. It is also known in the industry as variables or unit linked (VULs). The two ULPs are priced at affordable pricing points, with variants that require merely P2,000 a month in premiums. Philam Life marketing head Jessica C. Abaya said their VUL sales are now outpacing traditional or pure protection products. “About 80 percent of sales so far are ULPs,” Abaya said in a briefing yesterday. Last year, ULPs accounted for nearly 60 percent of total sales. She expressed confidence that the new products will boost the sale of traditional and ULPs as the highly-liquid market is hungry for both investments and protection. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Only four percent of the country’s population have personal life insurance products,” she said. Nearly 19 percent of the country’s population are holders of some form of protection, majority of which are government funds such as the Government Security and Insurance System (GSIS), PhilHealth and the Social Security System (SSS). However, the gradual demise of special deposit accounts (SDAs) means there is roughly P1 trillion that will return to the market in search of new options. Philam Life reported total premiums of P15.29 billion in 2012, from P13.35 Read More …
May 212013
BPI ASSET Management has revised its inflation forecasts downward for this year and the next on the back of stable oil and food prices.
Feb 012013
MANILA, Philippines – Ayala-owned Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) posted a 27 percent increase in its unaudited net income to P16.3 billion last year from P12.8 billion in 2011. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, BPI said the improved earnings could be attributed to the strong business volume and revenue growth as the Philippines likewise grew at a faster pace compared to other ASEAN economies. Total resources reached P985 billion, or 17 percent higher than the previous year, as the bank’s core businesses remained solid. The bank’s deposits expanded 18 percent to P802 billion while assets grew 11 percent to P743 billion. The net loan portfolio also increased 16 percent to P527 billion as all markets sustained double-digit growth. It said the consumer/middle market/SMEs segment grew 17 percent while the top tier corporates jumped 12 percent. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 BPI president and CEO Aurelio R. Montinola III said they expect to sustain their in loan performance this year. “2012 was a banner year for BPI, as we generated record profits and exceeded our return on equity goal of 16 percent. We will aim for 12 to 15 percent loan growth in 2013,” he said. This year, he said they hope to duplicate the earnings growth of the bank. “Given significant securities trading gains last year and an even lower interest rate regime this year, our challenge for 2013 will be to deliver a meaningful earnings growth after a record 2012 Read More …