E*TRADE Financial Corp., one of the largest US online discount stockbrokers that cater mainly to retail clients, has outsourced its customer services to the Philippines, the office of Rep. Joseph A. Santiago said Tuesday in a statement.

“We definitely welcome E*TRADE’s resolve to entrust its customer services to the Philippines,” the statement said, quoting Santiago, former chief of the National Telecommunications Commission and lone representative from Catanduanes.

“With this, we  also  expect   E*TRADE’s rivals in the rapidly growing US online discount brokerage space to consider the option of relegating their customer services to the Philippines, in order to stay cost-competitive,” he added.

E*TRADE has outsourced its client services to the Philippine contact centers and back offices of Arlington, Virginia-based Access Worldwide Communications Inc., a business process outsourcing provider that specializes in customer management, Santiago said.

Access Worldwide supports a number of companies in a variety of industries, including financial services, technology, telecommunications, consumer products, health care and media. It holds offices in the business and financial district of Makati.

New York, New York-based E*TRADE is the third-largest US provider of online securities brokerage services and technology-based financial services, predominantly through the Internet.

E*TRADE has more than 3.6 million mostly retail brokerage accounts that have more than $214-billion invested in the stock market.

The electronic broker handles an average of 171,387 trades every day.

E*TRADE’s customers can buy and sell stocks, bonds, options, futures and over 6,000 nonproprietary mutual funds.

The company also has a banking business, with about 821,000 accounts.

E*TRADE has a market capitalization of $8.2 billion. The only two other online brokers that are larger than E*TRADE are San Francisco, California-based The Charles Schwab Corp., with a market capitalization of $24.5 billion, and Omaha, Nebraska-based TD Ameritrade Holdings Corp., with a market capitalization of $10.2 billion.

SINGAPORE—San Miguel Corp. (SMC), Philippines’ largest food and drink maker, is seeking a $1.2 billion loan as it expands into mining and other industries, two bankers arranging the financing said.

US broker gives new business to RP

E*TRADE Financial Corp., one of the largest US online discount stockbrokers that cater mainly to retail clients, has outsourced its customer services to the Philippines, the office of Rep. Joseph A. Santiago said Tuesday in a statement.

PHILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is again revising its core net income target this year from P33 billion to P34 billion on the heels of the firm’s first-half results that rode on its mobile-phone business and election-related spending.

PHILIPPINE stocks Tuesday rose the most in almost five months, rebounding from a four-day slide on speculation the US will limit losses from a housing slump.

Shares of stock in a corporation are personal property, and it is well settled that the owner, as in the case of other personal property, has an inherent right, as incident of his ownership, to sell and transfer the same at will, except insofar as the right may be restricted by the charter of the corporation or the general law, provided the transfer is in good faith, and to a person capable of assuming the obligations of a stockholder (12 Fletcher Cyc. Corp. Section 5452).