The remittance business of the Asian United Bank (AUB) is expected to expand by almost 40 percent this year, from $87 million in 2006 to at least $120 million by the end of 2007.
The mid-sized commercial bank expects the business to expand by over 40 percent next year to $170 million, or more than a hundred percent better than the natonal average of nearly 20 percent.
AUB senior vice president Antonio V. Agcaoili said that the bank’s bullish attitude is based on the continued expansion of tie-ups with foreign banks and non-banking financial institutions.
It presently maintains alliances with 47 foreign remittance companies and 15 correspondent banks worldwide.
The alliances is global from the United States, Middle East including Kuwait, Bahrain, Quater, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Europe including Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, and the Asia and the Pacific including Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Brunei.
Top remittances come from the Middle East followed by the US, then Switzerland and Germany. Standard transaction fees range from $0.15 to $0.17.
In the last mile or domestic linkages, AUB maintains tie-ups with 15 domestic courier companies, six domestic banks, and ATM operator BancNet. These include the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank), Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), the Development Bank of the Philippines, the Land Bank of the Philippines, and One Network Bank (ONB), the country’s largest rural bank.
Meanwhile, AUB expects to register a 2007 full year net income of P1 billion from P820 million last year, and likely to increase to P1.5 billion in 2008. Net income realized in 2005 was P696 million, and P457 million the year before.
Its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stood at a healthy 26 percent while total resources at P38 billion.
The medium-sized commercial bank expects to end the year with 40 branches, and it will grow by another 15 next year. — TPT