Bank exec sees no rise in bad loans despite interest rate hike

AN executive of Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) discounts an increase in bad loans following the hikes in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) key policy rates.

BPI president and chief executive officer (CEO) Jose Teodoro Limcaoco said there is no significant rise in nonperforming loans (NPLs) as some borrowers just requested for longer payment terms for housing and automotive loans, thus “affordability is still there.”

“We’re not seeing any rise in NPLs. People are very judicious about the use of credit, which is good,” he said in a press briefing Wednesday.

The BSP's key rates have been increased by a total of 425 basis points since May 2022 to help address the elevated inflation rate and ensure healthy interest rate differential with the United States.

Meanwhile, the bank has launched its upgraded banking app that will allow users to easily navigate, provides updated online processes, and will provide financial advice through artificial intelligence (AI) in the near term.

BPI platforms business head Fitz Chee said around 50,000 downloads have been recorded for the new app since February 2022 after it was made available through the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store.

He encouraged the nearly 6 million clients who are enrolled in the digital banking app to download the upgraded app and expect these to be onboard by end-December this year. He said BPI clients who

THE low insurance penetration rate in the Philippines, especially among the poor, along with the recovery of the economy, are among the opportunities that an official of EastWest Ageas consider as what will propel the business in the long run.

In an interview by the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Friday, EastWest Ageas Insurance president and chief executive officer (CEO) Sjoerd Smeets said that with the lower level of financial literacy in the country compared to advanced economies, Filipinos are not keen on really getting insurance coverage.

This, he said, is the reason why the company, a joint venture between local bank EastWest Bank and Belgiumheadquartered Ageas, has started its agency force to widen its reach.

Since starting the agency force in the second half of 2022, Smeets said they now have around 120 insurance agents and the aim is to increase the figure to close to 1,000 by end-2023.

He said Filipinos in general still prefer to talk to insurance agents to explain to them the value of life insurance, as proven by the below 3 percent insurance penetration in the country.

“Filipinos don’t go themselves looking for insurance. They are more being approached and somehow convinced that life insurance is good for them,” he said.

While some insurance firms tap millennials as agents to entice more people to have insurance coverage, Smeets said their current agents are older individuals who are in their 40s and 50s and have million dollar rank certifications from other companies.

Smeets said they aim to double their sales in two to three years from the current 257,000 clients, which are a combination of individuals and group memberships.

He said most of their clients are already in their 40s and up but said they also target the younger generations, most of whom are not focused on getting insurance coverage yet but are enjoying life first by spending on food and nicer places to live.

“People need to get to certain stages of their lives

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IGPANADAYUG TA ABAGA SA BAYUG COOPERATIVE PROTECTING GOD’S VANISHING CREATION: HIGHEST FORM OF WORSHIP

Wherever the Lumads are in Mindanao, be they in Cagayan de Oro, Davao or Caraga, they face the Abaga sa Bayug (Mindamora Falls) situated in Lantod, Talakag, Bukidnon, every time they pray. This is so because it is their firm belief that nature is the reflection of MAGBABAYA (the Creator). Such may sound weird to religious groups who are giving high veneration to the crucifix and the images inside their respective churches. But a cursory look in history will unveil the truism that all these images that the Christians are giving high veneration to were just the imagination of the painter, Leonardo da Vinci who painted the “Last Supper.” when you painted Christ.” The model in painting Christ and Judas was just the same person. One’s attitudes and way of life affect his physical appearance. That model, from being a seminarian oozing with godly qualities became a bad person when he left the seminary, living a criminal-life existence, enamored in the whims and caprices of the mundane, thus transforming his physical appearance into a Judas traitor-like look.. de Oro. Indeed, nature is the reflection of Magbabaya but it is so frustrating that no one is listening to the cry of Mother Earth in a world that is so buried in so much unbridled materialism and consumerism.

Thus, the model used by Leonardo da Vinci in painting Jesus and Judas is the same person whose physical appearance did change based on the way of life and kind of person that he had become.

Nature has been sacrificed to the altar of greed and profit, in defiance of the rule of law.

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Training for Parents (Part 2)

Think a minute . . . Yesterday we learned from the boiling frog that it is easy to become so accustomed and comfortable with our emotionally and spiritually unhealthy parenting habits that we do not see the dangerous direction we are leading our kids. Before it is too late, we need to start changing the negative, hurtful ways we may be raising and teaching them. First, we learned not to use anger, yelling and nagging to train our children. It does not truly work, nor does it make a happy family.

Second, we parents must earn our child’s respect. It is easy to get your child to fear you, but it will take your time and love to earn their true respect. This is greatly important, because your child’s respect for your authority is going to determine his respect for all other kinds of authority: his school teachers, bosses, laws and government, along with everyone else he will live and work with. If you want your children to accept your authority and values when they are teenagers, you must first earn their respect by your daily good example during their younger years. As an expert family counselor says: “Rules without relationship

What Leonardo da Vinci did when he painted the image of Christ was to get a model, a seminarian, who was then oozing with spiritual qualities of love, courage and goodness. After that, Leonardo painted the twelve apostles, beginning with St. Peter looking fatherly up to the youngest apostle named John looking astonishingly young. After finishing the eleven apostles after five years, Leonardo had then had a problem in painting Judas. So, he went to a prison cell to look for a model and finally finding one who looked like a traitor and made him a model in painting Judas. After painting the image of Judas, Leonardo approached the Judas model to pay him and asked for his name. The model then said, “Oh, Leonardo, you don’t remember me anymore. We have met five years ago when you got me as a model

THINK A MINUTE

JHAN TIAFAU HURST bring rebellion.” We parents can damage, even destroy, our children through overly strict, harsh and unloving punishment that hurts them emotionally through cruel, unkind words or even physical harm to our kids. A child should never be laughed at and his feelings not valued and cared about by his or her father and mother. A parent who regularly hurts and humiliates their child will eventually lose their child’s love and respect for them. The child will fear you enough to obey you when they are young, but later as a young adult they may deeply resent you for years, even their lifetime.

A third important principle is to show your love to your child after you have needed

When I was a young kid, I always accompanied by grandmother early morning to attend a daily mass in the Cathedral who upon reaching the Cathedral gate would walk kneeling up to the altar. Bakit po lola? Alam po ba ninyo ang inyong niluluhuran ay imagination lamang po ni Leonardo da Vinci. My Lola would tell me to shut up.

During the height of our human barricade in the nineties, our compassionate allies from the Indigenous People would tell me that they are willing to give-up their lives to protect God’s vanishing creation because for them, protecting God’s vanishing creation is the highest form of worship. Some of them have been killed by the armed men of the loggers and the miners like Datu Fausto Orasan known as Datu Sandigan, the Chieftain of the Higaonon Tribe in Cagayan

It has been said that in this country, no one is above the law; all must bow down to the majesty of the law because we follow the rule of law and not of men! Tell that to the marines! No such thing as rule of law on environment. A century or so ago, our country had some 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest very rich in megadiversity, oozing with billions of flora and fauna that were endemic in a tropical country. Such was reinforced by a study of Dr. Larry Heaney, an environmentalist from California, USA who came in the eighties and stayed somewhere in Mt. Kitanglad Range for three months. He was so astonished to see monkey-eating eagles hovering above against the backdrop of flowering plants and radiating trees, i.e., almaciga, red lauan, mahogany, narra, etc., which were the finest in the world. As Dr. Heaney’s study concluded, “ the number of flora and fauna what were found in the 5,000-ha. Mt. Kitanglad Range was greater compared to those found in one-billion hectare continent of North America. Visiting Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Kalatungan Range in Talakag, Bukidnon, it was so frustrating to see some 200,000 hectares denuded areas after six logging companies, i.e, TIPI, Roa & Sons, Valderama, Dacudao, Remedios Fortich, Vicmar,2nd Lt. Desty Eleazar, etc. massively logged our forest ecosystem without let-up in total violation of existing laws. Don’t you know that our forest ecosystem is well protected by existing laws that are prohibiting the cutting of trees in forest areas that have an altitude of more than 1,000 meters above sea level or in topography with slope having 50% gradient. These notwithstanding, laws were enacted then prohibiting logging of the finest of trees that were found only in the Philippines.

Thus, on Dec.17, 2011, Typhoon “Sendong” hit the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan causing the death of some 3,000 poor people and rendering some 10,000 families homeless. The victims were the poor living in the vulnerable areas. Where were those who exploited the ecosystems, the loggers and miners? They were safely ensconced in their mansions as a logger would earn then 360 million pesos in one shipment of logs