Business

The country’s top corporations are now more conscious about online security and are starting to invest heavily on information-technology (IT) products and services to address business disruptions from cyberattacks like those from computer viruses. 

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) maintained its key policy rates, saying last Friday that economic indicators continue to remain appropriate, even as average inflation in the first quarter of 2016 remains below the government’s target of two percent to four percent growth. 

Sy-led Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. (BDO) is targeting a 4 percent rise in net income this year to P26 billion, to be buoyed by the strength of the domestic economy, as well as core businesses, namely deposits and loans. 

By Riza Lozada Utility firm Manila Water Co. Inc. is alloting P4.2 billion for capital expenditures to expand its water service and network reliability in the Metro Manila East Zone, in which it has a concession with the government, said Fernando Zobel de Ayala, the firm’s chairman. 

Diversified conglomerate Ayala Corp. has embarked on a five-year plan to increase its net income to P50 billion by 2020 through investments in power and transport infrastructure, healthcare and education, and automotive and manufacturing, Ayala Corp. Chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said.

Top property developer SM Prime Holdings Inc. will shift its focus on projects in the provinces to cater to the “unserved” housing sector, SM Prime President Hans Sy said. 

The notorious vehicle traffic congestion in two of the Philippines’s largest cities is the target of a tie-up between app-based transport service Grab, government agencies and the World Bank (WB).

By Jerry Maglunog In the late 1980s, there were about 1,200 rural banks that provided credit in the countryside. It was the heyday of the rural-bank industry when fewer than 200 of them had assets of close to P1 billion.

Commercial banks, as well as their credit-card affiliates, report very high consumer lending, showing an increasing number of Filipinos spending more as a result of a robust economy.

Proper preparation goes a long way. A new solar-power system has armed an elementary school with the right tools to endure the worst floods, especially when power lines are down.