UCPB AUMs hit P34 B in first half of 2005

The trust department of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) is managing P34 billion as of end June this year, nearly 15-percent higher than the P29.6 billion in end December 2004.

Compared to the P26 billion in the first six months of 2004, the assets under management (AUM) of the UCPB trust group grew by over 30 percent.

Taking in consideration that the bank’s trust operation was retooled in 2003, the present AUMs is substantial.

Recently, it introduced two unit investment trust funds (UITFs) products which will be replacing the common trust funds (CTFs) offered by banks as required by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The monetary authority is adopting all financial products based on international accounting and financial standards."We are entering the marked-to-market (M2M) international environment to stay in touch and remain competitive regionally if not globally," authorities reasoned.

The exisitng CTFs of the trust department of the banks will be allowed to continue till maturity of the AUMs. However, no new funds will be allowed to enroll with CTFs.

Kevin Patrick L. Kwok, UCPB first vice president and trust officer explained that two new UITFs is sufficient as it is still managing existing CTFs.

"Like most banks with trust operations, we are still in varying stages of educating both internal operations and the investing public," Kwok explained. "We are more concerned with the profitability of both our operations and our clients rather than have a basket of products."

Most trust officers expect the performance of their operations to somewhat slip this year due to the adjustment period of shifting from the accrual era to the M2M environment. "But after the investing public as well as trust operations are adjusted, we will pick up from where we left of."

The country’s top 12 trust operations last year reached a record P707.5 billion assets under management (AUM), or nearly 30 percent better than the P544.3 billion in 2003.

UCPB has maintained seventh best in terms of AUMs in the past two years.

The trust group of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) topped the list with P159.9 billion AUMs. It was followed closely by the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) with AUMs reaching P146 billion.

In fact, the third to seventh top performers last year was exactly the same as in 2003.

Equitable PCIBank came in third in both period followed by Banco de Oro Universal Bank (BdO), the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), China Banking Corp. (China Bank), and the UCPB.

Equitable managed assets worth P101.3 billion while BdO maintained its fourth slot with P86.3 billion. RCBC managed P58.9 billion and China Bank accounted P38.1 billion AUMs.

Foreign player Deutsche Bank bagged the eighth spot with P19.8 billion AUMs followed by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) managing P18.3 billion assets.

In 10th position is another foreign bank player ING Bank with P18.2 billion AUMs.