MANILA, Philippines - Despite the prevailing volatility in the financial market, Ayala-run Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) sees a 20-percent growth in its assets under management (AUM) this year.
BPI senior vice president and head of Wealth Management Mario Miranda told reporters over the weekend that the bank is optimistic on the growth prospects of AUM amidst “a challenging year†for the trust business.
BPI Asset Management’s AUM for the first quarter of 2013 reached P758 billion, up 10 percent from the same period last year. AUM refers to the total funds managed by an investment management firm on behalf of investors.
The target growth for AUM for 2013 is almost double what was achieved last year.
BPI’s AUM increased by 10.94 percent to P742 billion in 2012 from P668.84 billion in 2011.
In the second quarter of the year, BPI’s AUM reached P231 billion up by 52 percent.
The optimism, Miranda said, was anchored on the ability of BPI to develop wide range of products that would be offered in different channels such as through mobile, Internet and telephone.
BPI investment funds are a combination of unit investment trust funds (UITF) and mutual funds.
“To us, it’s a great opportunity for us to know that there are more people out who can invest and who can be aware of investment process. It’s a great opportunity for us to expand our products and offer them in all available channels that we could come up whether its mobile through mobile applications, mobile, Internet, branches, telephones, ATMs,†said Miranda.
He said that of BPI’s six million customers, only two percent have been actually making investments. – With Ted Torres