September 24, 2007

I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.

Robert Green Ingersoll

EXCHANGE RATE: $1 : P45.31 (BWorld)
BANKING AND FINANCE
Banks see profits in going green. Banks are seeing profits in helping protect the environment by adopting a "green" attitude in lending.  Local bankers will find it easy to go green.  Development Bank of the Philippines has been "green" for over a decade.  Malaya p1

Thrift lenders' property exposure up.  Loans extended by thrift banks to the real-estate sector jumped by a fourth in June sustaining the uptrend in lending this sector for 17 consecutive quarters, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).   In a statement, the BSP said the thrift industry's exposure to the property sector rose 24.1 percent to P80.9 billion in the three-month period ending June from P65.2 billion in the same period last year.  Manila Times pB1

HSBC card growth on track.  HSBC card growth on track.  The local unit of Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp. Limited (HSBC) is on track in meeting its target of having one million cardholders by the end of the year given the bullish performance of the economy and the bank's aggressive campaign for credit card spending.  The bank's card business is only less than 100,000 cards shy of its target as it now has more than 900,000 cards in circulation, said Suresh Nanoo, HSBC senior vice-president for marketing and product development.  BWorld s2/1

China Bank, MRGliane seal remittance deal.  The Philippines' first privately owned commercial bank, China Bank, and one of Canada's most trusted money exchange and remittance services firms, MRGliane Universal Corporation (MRGUC), finalized a remmittance deal that will improve the remittance service from Canada to the Philippines.  China Bank and MRGUC have committed to give the best service to the growing Filipino community in Canada, numbering about 300,000 to date.  BWorld s2/p8

Banks' bad laon ratio eases further in July.   The amount of bad loans held by banks as a percentage of their total lending portfolio eased slightly in July, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said.  MTimes pB3

 

ECONOMY
Treasury bill rates may dip.  Treasury bill rates are expected to decline by five basis points (bps) across the board in today's auction, as these track improving rates in the secondary market following the US Federal Reserve's rate cut last week.  Analysts said T-bill rates in the secondary markets had gone down even before the Fed announced a hefty rate cut of 50 basis points on its key interest rate to 4.75%, and by half-a-point to its discount rate to 5.25%. BWorld s2/1

Central Bank mops up P674 in cash. The central bank's mopping up operations have yielded P674 billion in both special deposit accounts and reverse repurchase agreements as of August 24, BSP Deputy Gov. Diwa Guinigundo said.  Guinigundo said the mopping up operations showed that the tools the central bank introduced in May were functioning as envisioned bringing down domestic liquidity growth to below 20 percent.  MlaStandard pB3

 

NATIONAL SCENE
Neri to bare all in ZTE-NBN deal.  Former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary and current Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri is reportedly ready to spill the beans on every individual involved in the controversial national broadband project of the Arroyo government.  Neri, who also served as House deputy secretary-general for socio-economic planning and development, will bare all, according to Senate Pres.  Manuel Villar Jr., since he is an "honest person," who would testify on everything he knows about the ZTE-NBN deal.   Tribune p1

Trade, Finance still at odds over perks. The Board of Investments (BOI) has drawn up its own set of proposals to reform the country's fiscal incentives system, putting itself in direct collision with the Finance department which is pushing its own ideas in Congress.   Quirino Rep. Junie E. Cua last week filed House Bill (HB) 2530, which proposes a new law to govern the grant of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to investors.  BWorld p1

 

OPINION

Pathetic BDO service (by Jesse E.L. Bacon II in his Man at the Market column in Tribune p9).  BDO-SM Fairview assistant manager Ruth Vicencio insisted that they could not accept our check bearing our abbreviated name as in this corner's head because our account with them bears our full name.  Without even giving us a chance to explain, she immediately dismissed our appeal for consideration saying it is their bank's policy not to honor such kind of check.  What is unconscionable with Vicencio's position, is the fact that when we opened our account with them they accepted the check issued us by the same entity with our abbreviated name as the payee.  But Vicencio's arrogance to even give us the chance to expalin is one for the books.   Tribune p9.

 

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