Banking & Finance

The Asian Develop­ment Bank’s (ADB) operations that in­cluded approvals of loans and grants, techni­cal assistance, and cofinanc­ing reached an all-time high of $27.15 billion in 2015, a 19 percent increase over the $22.89 billion in 2014, accord­ing to ADB figures.

Domestic liquidity or M3 is expected to remain high following the ban against trust entities from tapping the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) overnight de­posit facilities and the Term Deposit Fa­cility (TDF).

By Riza Lozada Foreign direct investments (FDI) inflow rose to $6.22 billion in the first 10 months of last year, up 22.2 percent from $5.1 billion a year ago, government data released last week showed.

Six foreign banks have indi­cated interest to open local offices, Bangko Sentral ng Pili­pinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said.

By Riza Lozada  The Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) has vowed to substantially increase lending to small farmers and fishermen from P37.9 billion to P115 billion over the next six years, in keeping with President Duterte’s goal of dispersing the benefits of growth to the countryside through the development of the farm sector.

Light Rail Transit 1 (LRT-1) operator Light Rail Manila Corp’s (LRMC) P24-billion loan facility was recently awarded Best Project Finance Deal of 2016 in the 10th Annual Alpha Southeast Asia Best Deal and Solution Awards. 

Microfinance firm Cebuana Lhuillier has forged a partnership with Bayad Center to further boost its domestic remittance service in the country. 

The policy-making Monetary Board has approved the acquisition by Union Bank of the Philippines (UBP) units Union Properties Inc. (UPI) and City Savings Bank Inc. (CitySavings) of the 11-branch First-Agro Industrial Rural Bank (FairBank) based in Cebu. 

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has extended the deadline for the exchange or replacement of old bank notes, also known as the New Design series banknotes or NDS, to March 31, 2017. 

By Riza Lozada The state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) will set up by September next year a bank partly owned by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and with an authorized capital of P3 billion.