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STATE-OWNED Development Bank of the Philippines plans to
extend financial advisory services to overseas Filipino
workers and many others who happen to be financially
unsophisticated, with plenty of extra cash and don’t
quite know what to do with the money.
DBP
chairman Patricia Sto. Tomas bared the plan in a
briefing on Tuesday as part of a bigger plan bringing
about more opportunities to still more Filipinos down
the line.
“We
intend to go into financial advisory services for those
who can least afford it such as the OFWs, government
employees and such other groups as may demand or require
it,” Sto. Tomas, former labor secretary and civil
service chief, said.
No
timetable was set but it comes at a time when the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas is devising ways to encourage
millions of OFW to invest a portion of their earnings in
hopes of tapping the economic multiplier those funds
have yet to yield.
Only
recently, DBP opened a
Hong Kong remittance unit whose four-month operations in 2006 handled
a total $1.268 million thus far.
The bank
is looking at ties with banks in the
Middle East, Asia-Pacific and
Europe
as its remittance business expands over time.
“Many
Filipinos do not really know what to do with their extra
cash. The board realized there must be a better way of
using resources one did not expect. We want to give
honest-to-goodness advice to people who don’t know what
to do with unexpected money,” Sto. Tomas said.
But
while the mechanism was not yet in place, she was sure
one should be ready “before the end of the first half
this year.”
DBP
president Rey G. David also reported net income of P3.7
billion for 2006, 16 percent higher than previous.
He
expects the bank to earn a lesser amount this year, in
part because of continued benign lending across the
industry and because of increased competition.
DBP’s
loan portfolio totaled P79.49 billion at end-2006, the
bulk of which, or P66.14 billion, was set aside for
development projects.
Its
assets stood at P212.89 billion or a little over 10
percent higher even as nonperforming loans dipped 66
percent to P3.01 billion from P8.9 billion. |
