Pinoy financial literacy improving

CEBU, Philippines - More Filipinos are now starting to embrace other forms of investment channels, aside from banking institutions, as financial literacy especially among the youths and the young professionals show significant improvements.

Fund management company, PhilAm Asset Management Inc., (PAMI) reported an encouraging growth of its managed funds portfolio in the Philippines in recent years, owing to the awareness of Filipinos to embrace mutual fund investment alternatives.

A mutual fund is a collective type of investment that pools money from investors to buy stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments and other securities.

Gina Goco Morales, PAMI executive vice president said that the company registered three percent increase in its managed fund portfolio to a total of P27 billion, of which 60 percent is invested into equities.

According to Morales, people are now starting to realize that mutual funds, and other non-conventional investment channels in the Philippines provide high yields.

In an earlier interview with PAMI president and chief executive officer (CEO) Karen Liza M. Roa she said the growing interest of the middle-income earners to take advantage of mutual fund instruments signify a very promising outlook for the industry.

Roa said because of the improved purchasing power of Filipinos, now larger portion of the population is looking at high-yielding and safer investment instruments, and mutual funds is the closest alternative.

PAMI also noted a big shift of investors’ profile, from largely high-end, now the company noted an active interest from the Philippines’ fat ‘middle-income’ segment, including the young professionals.

PAMI is a fund management company that manages the PhilAm Family of mutual funds. It is a wholly owned company owned by Philamlife.

She said Cebu and the rest of Southern Philippine markets is one of the company’s growth drivers, owing to the increasing awareness for mutual fund investments in this part of the country.

PAMI first vice president for equity fund management Eduardo R. Banaag, Jr., projected that the future for Philippine equity is bright, as its accelerating growth is being widely recognized by the international market.

Banaag said the equity investments is now more expensive in the Philippines, the reason why foreign inflows are coming in—not as “hot money”, but it is expected to be in the country’s financial system for long term. (FREEMAN)