Long enough to touch his heart

So, why should a man spend P10 million to be a media darling, particularly in Binondo? Understandably, his bankers are getting nervous.

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More and more, PureGold founder Lucio Co is beginning to look like a mandarin in those Chinese paintings. This is largely due to his goatee, which is now long enough to touch his heart.

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Banker 1: The talk in Forbes Park is about this banker who had to sell his house to pay off some family debts. Uh, he still lives in the same house as a tenant.

Not that the man is impoverished, mind you. His equally rich wife has one of the largest collection of high-end shoes in town. She has more Manolo Blahniks and Jimmy Choos than "Sex and the City" heroine, Carrie Bradshaw. (The collection of former First Lady Imelda Marcos doesn’t count because, well, the bulk of that collection came from Marikina).

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Banker 2: Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura and Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Lilia Bautista have been talking themselves blue about the nearing Feb. 12 deadline set by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force on needed amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law.

After the deadline, the country will face sanctions that may include delays in the receipt of remittances, at the personal level, and in any international trade-related business, at the corporate level.

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Bank notes 3: Oh dear, the names of the government nominees to the board of this bank have indeed changed but these new directors continue to be a source of great frustration (and stress that have led to loss of hair) for the professional managers.

Basically, the problem lies with entitlement – what these directors feel they are entitled to take from the bank and from its shareholders without having to work for it.

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Bank notes 4: The Development Bank of the Philippines is celebrating its anniversary today because that’s when President Macapagal-Arroyo is free.

Also invited – and sure to be present – are Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho, whose department supervises government financial institutions, and Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea Gozun, to acknowledge the only local bank which is environment certified by the ISO.

This year, DBP chairman Vitaliano Nañagas II and president and chief executive officer Simon Paterno are handing out awards for the most outstanding entrepreneur-client (to Matling Industrial Commercial Corp. chairman and president Richard Spencer) and for most environmentally responsive corporation to (Lacto-Asia Pacific Corp.)