Banco de Oro Universal Bank, the banking unit controlled by shopping magnate Henry Sy, has tied up with remittance firm Chartered Forex Philippines Inc.

BDO in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange said it signed agreements with Forex.

Under the agreements, Chartered forex will have the exclusive right to co-brand its remittance services with BDO in the U.S. In return, Chartered Forex has committed its foreign and inward remittance business in the Philippines to BDO.

Chartered Forex is one of the largest Filipino-owned remittance and freight forwarding groups worldwide.
BDO last year acquired 60 branches of First e-Bank from Metro Pacific Corp.
BDO is a full-service universal bank with 167 branches nationawide. It is a key subsidiary of the SM Group of Companies owned by Henry Sy.

Banco de Oro Universal Bank, the banking unit controlled by shopping magnate Henry Sy, has tied up with remittance firm Chartered Forex Philippines Inc.

BDO in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange said it signed agreements with Chartered Forex, a remittance company operating worldwide for an exclusive co-branding.

Under the agreements, Chartered forex will have the exclusive right to co-brand its remittance services with BDO. In return, Chartered Forex has committed its foreign and inward remittance business in the Philippines to BDO.

Chartered Forex is one of the largest Filipino-owned remittance and freight forwarding groups in the U.S. It also operates in Asia and Europe.

The tie-up is expected to give BDO a share of the huge remittances sent by overseas Filipino workers.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas earlier reported that remittances from OFW’s in September 2003 rose to $600 million, up 7.6 percent from $556 million the previous year. This brings the cumulative nine-month remittances to $5.663 billion, an improvement of 5.1 percent from $5.389 billion in the same period last year.

BDO registered an unaudited net income of P965 million for the first nine months of the year, which is 15 percent higher compared to P842.1 million in the same period last year.

BDO attributed the growth to the bank’s strong net interest income which totaled P2.78 billion, up 69 percent from a year-ago level.

BDO last year acquired 60 branches of First e-Bank from Metro Pacific Corp.

BDO said the acquisition would further broaden the bank’s consumer lending activities, particularly in residential mortgages.

The bank also bough Banco Santander Philippines Inc. (BDPI) this year, giving BDO access to the market for high net worth individuals, a niche that BSPI has successfully developed over the years.

BDO is a full-service universal bank with 167 branches nationawide. It is a key subsidiary of the SM Group of Companies owned by Henry Sy.

JBA
Manila Standard
Thursday, November 20, 2003