Financial advisers share investment views, tips

Major financial institutions opened yesterday the Money Summit and Wealth Expo at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino in an effort to educate Cebuanos about financial wellness.

Businessmen and financial advisors like Islands Group of Companies chairman Jay Aldeguer, Philam Life chief executive officer Rex Mendoza and BPI Asset Management and Trust Group vice president Mario Miranda will share their views about investment during the two-day summit, which is organized by the Bank of Philippine Islands.

Mendoza said that the summit was done to help Filipinos prosper through financial literacy and wellness.

“There are two levels that we do it. One is to make our products relevant to specific group of people and second through the network of agents and financial advisors who touch base with our customers on a one-on-one session,” said Mendoza.

Ma. Theresa Javier, BPI senior vice president and head of the Asset Management and Trust, said only 20 percent of Filipinos have bank accounts and only two percent of the bank’s customer base have investments, leaving a large still-to-be tapped market.

Javier said the reason is that people don’t understand fully what are the products and solutions available to them by the different financial and banking institutions like them.

“We would like to advocate financial wellness through the summit. Through financial literacy we make people aware and be responsible financially,” said Javier.

Miranda agreed.

“Investing isn’t only for the rich but is something that everyone should be doing in as simple a manner as brushing one’s teeth,” he said.

For P10,000 people can already start investing and products nowadays are also designed to suit the specific needs of the customer, he said.

A big issue for the people to get more information about financial solutions is their unease of talking to financial consultants in banks and other financial institutions.

“Some people still don’t feel comfortable going to banks and talking to bank personnel about their products because they feel intimidated, one way that we removed this barrier is through the online technology engaging them through social networking sites and our websites,” said Miranda.

With the healthy economic performance of the country now, Javier said people were more optimistic and were looking for investment opportunities from owning their own house, car or starting up their new business.

Jocelyn Sta. Ana, BPI senior vice president for retail mortgage, said the bank’s consumer loan portfolio already registered double digit growth as of the first half of the year.

“Housing loans have grown by 15 percent, car loans at 14 percent and the ka-Negosyo loans for small business loans grew by 15 percent,” said Sta. Ana.

She said that the growth would show how people were interested in investing, which could be fueled with more aggressive promotion and financial education through various information channels like the summit.