Metrobank fund manager posts record asset levels in 5 months

MANILA, Philippines - The FMIC Asset Management Inc. (FAMI) has reported that its total assets under management (AUMs) stood at a corporate record P3.5 billion at the end of May this year.

That is a six-percent increase compared to the P3.3 billion the fund manager was managing at the start of the year.

“Our target is P5 billion by the end of the year,” Hector C. de Leon, FAMI executive vice president and chief operating officer, said. FAMI is a subsidiary of the First Metro Investments Corp. (FMIC), which in turn, is a member of the Metrobank Group of Companies.

FAMI is a fund manager that handles four mutual funds under the First Metro Save and Learn.

The funds are the equity fund, the fixed income fund, the balanced fund, and the money market fund.

“We are looking to introduce a dollar-denominated fund in the near future,” De Leon said.

Of the total AUMs, P2.2 billion are invested in equity funds, P600 million in balanced fund, P500 million in fixed income or bond funds, and P200 million in the money market fund.

Existing client accounts reached approximately 10,000.

The fund manager’s optimism is based on the strong showing of the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi).

At the same time, FAMI’s equity funds reported a 63.37-percent growth for the whole of 2010, and 53.11 percent in 2009.

The fund got top honors last year, and second best in 2009.

In a five-year period starting 2006, the average growth of its equity funds is 24.4 percent.

Its balanced fund meanwhile, reported an average growth in the same five-year period of 17.57 percent, while its fixed income fund reported an average five-year period growth rate of 7.11 percent.

However, the FAMI official said that 2010 would be difficult to equal, as that period recorded historical volumes of both domestic and international investments in the equity markets.

“That is the challenge of the fund managers, to come close to the 2010 levels,” De Leon said.

Meanwhile, FAMI will soon be launching financial literacy campaigns to depositors and borrowers of the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank).

And the same time, it continues to undertake similar campaigns in schools that are allied with the 1,260-member Catholic Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP).

Of the total accounts, nearly 40 percent are directly and indirectly related to the educational system.

A few years back, FAMI launched its Monthly Investment Program (MIP) for employees of CEAP member schools.

Under the program, FAMI provides the investment mechanism where an employee from any of the 1,260 CEAP member-schools nationwide makes voluntary monthly savings via salary deduction.

These savings are invested in a FAMI-managed mutual fund of the employees’ choice. 

“The program provides the answer to this need by providing a saving and investment,” the FAMI chief operating officer said, adding that the MIP was first introduced by FAMI last year among the Metrobank Group employees. 

Mutual funds are a pool of funds where investments as low as P5,000 can be initially opened.

The funds are managed by competent fund managers, and overseeing money placed in equity funds, fixed income or bond funds, balanced funds (a mix of equity and fixed income), and money market funds.