PSBank launches kiddie savings

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) has introduced two new savings products for children and teens to teach them the importance of saving at an early age.

The PSBank Kiddie Savers Account is a savings account for children from zero to 12 years old while the PSBank Teen Savers Account is for kids 13 to 18 years old.

PSBank vice president and Business Development Division head Melissa Tong said that the new savings products is a good tool for parents to teach their children the values of thrift, discipline and perseverance.

“We designed it in such a way that it would be very easy for parents to open and maintain the accounts. They don’t have to make an initial deposit and there is no maintaining balance, which means their children can start saving even with a small amount. Their accounts also continue to earn interest regardless of the balance,” Tong added.

Aside from enjoying the stability of banking with PSBank, children are protected through a free personal accident insurance from Charter Ping An Insurance Corp. This gives them an insurance coverage of up to five times the monthly average daily balance or a maximum of P500,000.

For children below seven years of age, parents are advised to open an In Trust For (ITF) account. For those beyond seven years old, parents have the option of opening a joint OR, joint AND, or an individual account for each of their children.

PSBank is a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) and the thrift bank has consistently maintained its second best position among its peers.

Last year, it reached a record net income of P2.3 billion from P2 billion in 2011 primarily due to the outstanding growth in its loan portfolio coupled by gains in its investment portfolio. Return on equity rose to 17.6 percent.

 PSBank opened 20 additional branches last year bringing its branch network to 220. It expanded its automated teller machines (ATMs) network t0 532 onsite and offsite ATMs all over the country. 

As of December 2012, the Bank’s ATM network is the 6th largest among Philippine banks while its branch network is now the 9th largest.