BPI assets under management up 7%

MANILA, Philippines – Ayala-controlled Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has reported that its assets under management (AUM) reached P470 billion as of end-June 2010, up a little over seven percent from P439 billion at end-2009.

The bank said roughly P440 billion consist of trust funds managed by its Asset Management Group while approximately P30 billion in the form of mutual funds.

The mutual funds under the umbrella of the ALFM Family of Funds account for 46 percent of total AUMs managed by the country’s mutual fund industry. These comprise six mutual funds: the ALFM Peso bond fund, ALFM Dollar bond fund, ALFM Euro bond fund, ALFM PSE index fund, ALFM Growth fund and the newly-launched ALFM Money Market fund.

BPI executive vice president and head of the Asset Management Group Adelbert A. Legasto said they expect the fund volume to expand dramatically.

He said they are institutionalizing the industry and popularizing the same by lowering the initial investment amount and succeeding placements.

“We have lowered the initial investment amount to P5,000 and succeeding placements at P1,000 from the original P10,000 and P5,000, respectively,” Legasto said.

The BPI official said investor confidence has now reached new highs with the peaceful outcome of the May National elections as the Philippines, along with most of emerging Asia, has outgrown the global economy.

The level of liquidity in the domestic market is one of the highest with individual investors hunting for investment products. Special deposit accounts (SDA) hit P800 billion in the first quarter of the year, while deposits amounted to P500 billion in the same period.

The mutual fund industry recorded a historical volume in 2007 of P862 billion worth of AUMs but was followed by a major slump to P600 billion due to the global crisis.

BPI Investment president Fernando J. Sison III said the industry is forecasting that AUMs would surpasss the record levels of 2007 by the middle of 2011. Sison is also the chairman of the Investment Companies Association of the Philippines (ICAP), the trade organization of the mutual fund industry.