...the PH global banks

8 Philippine banks make it to global rankings list

By Doris C. Dumlao
inquirer.net
12 September 2014

The SM group’s banking arm BDO Unibank Inc. has kept its bragging rights as the Philippines’ top bank in the Top 1,000 Global Banks Ranking 2014 report of British publication The Banker.

BDO, which placed 268th in the latest ranking, led the roster of eight Philippine banks that landed on the global list.

The seven other Philippine banks that made it to the list were Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (314th), Bank of the Philippine Islands (382nd), Philippine National Bank (506th), Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (590th), Security Bank Corp. (680th), China Banking Corp. (681st) and Union Bank of the Philippines (751st).

The banks were ranked by The Banker on the basis of strength of their tier1 or core capital, assets, performance and earnings.

Globally, most of the banks in the top 10 were either from China or the United States, with the exception of one British (HSBC) and one Japanese bank (Mitsubishi UFJ). The top five banks globally were ICBC (1st), China Construction Bank (2nd), JP Morgan Chase (3rd), Bank of America (4th), HSBC (5th), Citigroup (6th), Bank of China (7th), Wells Fargo & Co. (8th), Agricultural Bank of China (9th) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. (10th).

The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks ranking has been setting the industry benchmark since 1970, providing comprehensive intelligence about the health and wealth of the banking sector. The report enables investors and clients worldwide to assess the strength and weakness of the banks, identify banking partners for the future and track the big movers and new arrivals in the sector.

 

...the CB Governor for Asia

Tetangco Named CB Gov For Asia

 

 

By FIL C. SIONIL

Manila Bulletin 

October 22, 2012

 

 

MANILA, Philippines --- In recognition of his skillful handling of monetary policy amidst external financial threats, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. was named the Central Bank Governor of the Year For Asia by the international financial magazine, Emerging Markets. 

 

 

 

 “The (Philippine) central bank, under Governor Amando Tetangco’s stewardship has managed monetary policy with considerable skill, not least given the twin threats of China slowdown and spill-over from the Eurozones crisis,” Emerging Markets, in a statement, said.

Tetangco received the award at the sidelines of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meeting recently held in Tokyo, Japan. The yearly Emerging Markets CB Governor and Finance Minister of the Year Awards recognize the leading policymakers in each region. The awards are chosen by Emerging Markets’ editorial team, taking into account the views of leading regional experts. This is the second international recognition Tetangco has received for this year to date. Early this year, the Global Finance magazine named Tetangco as one of the world’s six best central bankers in 2012. For global finance, it was Tetangco’s fourth award.

Tetangco was chosen by Global Finance in recognition of his adept handling of the economy with the country taking advantage of the “receding inflation to cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low 3.75 percent in July, to stimulate growth as the global economy weakens.”

In an interview with Emerging Markets, the BSP Chief admitted that the monetary authorities “needed to sharpen our monitoring of market behavior and be creative in implementing market-based solutions to reduce, contain or eliminate asset bubbles.”

Against the backdrop of a brewing financial crisis in the Eurozone and the narrowing of growth in China, the Philippines economic performance has remained relatively strong, registering a 6.4 percent for the first quarter of the year.

...the mobile phone banking

Mongolian monetary officials in Phl The Philippine Star  June 14, 2011

MANILA, Philippines - Seventeen delegates from the Bank of Mongolia, the Finance Regulatory Board of Mongolia, the Information, Communications Technology, and Post Authority, along with other Mongolia government officials participated in the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) International Visits Program last month.

This was to learn first-hand about the uses of mobile money and mobile phone banking in the Philippines. John Owens, chief of party of the RBAP-Microentrepreneurs Access to Banking Services (MABS) program, introduced the delegates to the uses of mobile money and mobile phone banking practiced by Philippine rural banks. Owens also shared the latest updates in the Philippine rural banking industry, how mobile money and mobile phone banking are helping in the expansion of banking services to reach far-flung areas in the country, and how the Philippines’ excellent regulatory system has helped in the success of mobile phone banking.

...the Woven Hope

2 UP students bag award for cogon grass business The Philippine Star June 05, 2011 By Ranier Allan Ronda

Using cogon grass, UP students Kevin Paolo Hernandez and Ponce Ernest Samaniego make furniture pieces such as this table under their ‘Woven Hope’ business.| Zoom

MANILA, Philippines - Two senior business administration students of the University of the Philippines in Diliman won the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) business proposal competition last week for their idea of manufacturing furniture from cogon grass.

The Woven Hope business proposition, submitted by Kevin Paolo Hernandez, 19, and Ponce Ernest Samaniego, 22, was one of three business ideas that topped the PBSP’s Business in Development (BiD) challenge.

Hernandez said Woven Hope is an idea for a social enterprise that he, Samaniego and former classmates in the UP College of Business Administration came up with to pursue after college.

“We despised the idea that after four years worth of college hard work, we will just end up as corporate slaves in some multinational company. We felt that our curriculum was geared more toward the corporate track, that we were being trained to be mere employees. So we asked ourselves: why don’t we start up a company of our own?” Hernandez said.

The students started the company Outliers Inc. as a vehicle company for Woven Hope last month with the help of Hernandez’s mother, interior decorator Clariza Hernandez, who had come up with three furniture pieces to jumpstart the fledgling firm.

“We have a standing lamp, a sun-inspired hanging lamp, and a center table. Aside from cogon, we used other materials such as scrap metal, wood, and glass,” Hernandez said.

“We will be opening our own showroom very soon and we are contemplating on six to seven new designs to be displayed there and to be included in our brochures. We are also talking to different designers like Mr. Ito Kish to take part in our social enterprise by helping us out with our future designs,” he added.

Hernandez said cogon grass grows in 1.25 billion acres of land worldwide, a nuisance to farmers that can be a source of livelihood for poor communities.

“Farmers rid their lands of this pest by burning them or through the use of chemicals to treat them. So why not turn something considered as waste into something that will create value for underprivileged communities in far-flung areas by giving them jobs?” he said.

“This will be a steady source of income for our beneficiaries and probably a source of national pride when we go global. We hit the triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit,” he added.

Aside from Hernandez’s and Samaniego’s Woven Hope, other winners in the PBSP BiD 2011 challenge were Healthy Sweets, a coconut sugar business proposed by Betty Marfil-More from Davao.

Hernandez and Marfil-More will represent the Philippines in an international business idea competition in Bogota city in Colombia.

Thirty-nine-year-old community entrepreneur Nathalie Arsonillo of Bukidnon, meanwhile, won in the BiD women entrepreneurship category for the cassava mobile processing unit developed by her group, Sustainable Growth for Rural Ventures Inc. (SUGRUVI).

The enterprise was developed to help cassava farmers in Bukidnon process their harvest and sell it for better prices in the market.

The BiD Challenge Philippines is an annual international online business plan competition that promotes poverty reduction through enterprise development.

Since 2007, PBSP, together with Citibank, holds the annual competition to recognize the most innovative, viable and socially developmental enterprises that combine the potential for making profit and reducing poverty in poor communities.

PBSP also offers mentoring and guidance to some participants whose business ideas have piqued their interest.

...the golden bank

BDO bags three banking awards The Philippine Star May 24, 2011

MANILA, Philippines - Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. (BDO) has bagged three major citations in the recently-concluded The Asset Triple A Awards 2011 of the Hong Kong-based investment magazine The Asset. BDO was named in the Philippines as: the Best SME Bank, the Best Trade Finance Bank (Domestic) and the Rising Star Cash Management Bank. As the Best SME Bank, BDO was cited for its expansion efforts in “its delivery channels and product enhancements to better connect with their clients”.

Likewise, the foreign publication lauded the bank’s excellent execution of trade finance products and services. BDO also deserved the Rising Star Cash Management Bank Award for the vast development it implemented, particularly in the areas of product and channel enhancements.

...rural empowerment

PHL rural banks are getting stronger, says RBAP

12/12/2010 |

The Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) has frowned on the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.'s (PDIC) claim that the country's rural banking industry is growing weaker.

RBAP executive director Vicente Mendoza said in a statement this weekend that the industry is becoming stronger despite the closure of 23 rural banks as of end-October.

Mendoza pointed out that only 10 out of the 23 rural banks placed by PDIC under receivership were members of RBAP. RBAP has 599 members nationwide.

The PDIC's claim does not, in anyway, encourage investors to come in and buy banks under receivership, Mendoza said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the PDIC had launched the "Strengthening Program for Rural Banks" or SPRB to strengthen the country's rural banking industry through mergers and acquisition.

The program involves a P5-billion financial assistance and a grant of regulatory relief from the BSP and PDIC over two years.

Rural banks qualified to avail of the program have risk-based capital adequacy ratio below the BSP-mandated 10 percent and those that intend to merge or consolidate with eligible, strategic third-party investors.

Basel accord commitment

Mendoza pointed out that rural banks prefer to open new branches rather than acquire banks under receivership due to the tighter capitalization rules under the Basel commitment the BSP is implementing.

The Basel accords crafted in Basel, Switzerland is an international regulatory framework of banks.

"The reality in the industry is that rural banks would rather open new branches than take in troubled banks that would be hard to rehabilitate because of the tightened capitalization rules provided under the Basel framework that the BSP now requires banks to follow," he said.

Last month, the BSP increased the minimum capital requirement for rural banks by as much as 285 percent to help sustain the viability and competitiveness of major industry players.

It was but right to amend the capital requirement for rural banks last month, Mendoza said, noting that the last time the required minimum capital requirement was raised was in December 1999.

The BSP raised the minimum capital requirement for rural banks with head offices in Metro Manila to P100 million from P26 million.

The minimum capital requirement for Cebu City- and Davao City-based banks was increased to P50 million from P13 million.

Rural banks' minimum capital requirement in the first to fourth class municipalities was raised to P10 million from P6.5 million.

In the fifth to sixth class municipalities, the minimum capital requirement was increased to P5 million from P2.6 million.

Mendoza said the industry acknowledged the reforms as part of government measures and processes to strengthen banks, particularly after the global financial slowdown when even the mightiest financial institutions overseas had to fold up including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and American International Group.

"While this is considered a tough requirement particularly among banks, the industry recognizes the need to assure the stability of banks throughout the country," he said.

The number of banks in the country declined to 773 in the first half of the year from 804 in the same period last year, indicating the continued consolidation of banks as well as the exit of weaker players.

Central banks data showed that the number of universal and commercial banks was steady at 38 while the number of thrift banks was also unchanged at 74 in the same comparable period.

However, the number of rural banks fell to 661 from January to June this year compared to 692 in the same period last year, due primarily to the closure of several banks including those of the controversial Legacy Group.

The BSP reported that the number of branches of universal and commercial banks, thrift banks, and rural banks increased by 765 to 8,663 in the first semester of the year from 7,898 in the same period last year. — JE/VS. GMANews.TV