Banking & Finance

By Riza Lozada The government further relaxed rules on foreign-exchange transactions, raising the amount of foreign that can be bought from local banks without the need for documentation, the policy-making Monetary Board (MB) said.

The Chua Group of Companies, recently inaugurated a new ship repair and shipbuilding facility in Albuera, Leyte.

The region’s multilateral lender Asian Development Bank (ADB) will have Takehiko Nakao as President for an additional five years beginning this November 24 based on the recent elections held by the ADB board.

The United States needs to show more positive economic performance, otherwise the Federal Reserve (the Fed) has no choice but to hike rates in the near term following the rate cut announcement by the Bank of England (BOE) last Thursday, a local bank said in a report.

The Yuchengco group’s Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) posted an unaudited consolidated net income of P2.61 billion for the first half, 3.3 percent higher than the P2.53-billion net income reported for the same period last year. Core income excluding the cyclical trading gains increased by 59 percent.

By Riza Lozada Outstanding loans of commercial banks, net of reverse repurchase placements (RRP), grew by 17.6 percent in June after posting a 17.7-percent increase in May to reflect rising economic activities.

The Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) reported a first-half net income of P12.67 billion, up 35.6 percent from a year ago.

By Riza Lozada The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) does not expect to change its current monetary policy settings anytime soon as it said inflation forecasts remain consistent with its target range including over the horizon.

The Philippine National Bank (PNB) has sought the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) approval for the sale of P20 billion worth of long-term negotiable certificates of time deposit (LTNCD), the proceeds from which it intends to use for debt rollover.

State-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) has a new chief—former Officer-in-Charge Andres Sarmiento, who served in a concurrent position as executive vice president, after the bank’s President and CEO Gilda E. Pico’s term ended on July 14.