THE HOME Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) booked a higher income in 2019 on the back of loan payment collections.

In his 2019 accomplishment report released in Pasay City on Friday, Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees Chairman Eduardo D. del Rosario said Pag-IBIG’s net income stood at P34.37 billion in 2019, up by 4% compared to the P33.17 billion booked in the preceding year.

Assets held by the fund also jumped by 13% to a record high P603.39 billion from P533.72 billion.

Mr. Del Rosario said 90% or P31.07 billion of their fund’s income will be given back to its members in the form of dividends. He noted that dividend rates for regular savings and MP2 (Modified Pag-IBIG 2) are at 6.73% and 7.23%, respectively.

In terms of cash loans, he said P53.83 billion was released from the fund to over 2.5 million members.

“In the delivery of home financing, Pag-IBIG released P86.74 billion in housing loan takeouts in 2019. This is the highest ever housing loan takeout and this is 15% higher than last year’s P75.31 billion,” Mr. Del Rosario said.

Of these funds, P10.64 billion were disbursed for socialized housing meant for more than 27,000 borrowers that belong to minimum wage and low-income sectors.

He added that member savings collected from 14.69 million active members climbed by 25% year-on-year to P50.38 from P40.27 billion in 2018.

“What is noteworthy is the trust that our members have shown in our MP2 savings program. The MP2 is a purely voluntarily savings program. This year, our members collectively saved P12.01 billion [through MP2], a 169% from the previous year[‘s P4.47 billion],” Mr. Del Rosario said.

Mr. Del Rosario added that they are now involved in the local bond market.

“I reported that we are engaged in services of local equity fund managers…We awarded P1 billion each to the following: BPI (Bank of the Philippines Islands) Asset Management and Trust Corp., BDO [Unibank, Inc.], Philippine Equity and Management, Inc., Metro[politan] Bank & Trust Co.,, and ATRAM Trust Corp.,” he said.

Mr. Del Rosario also noted some of their initiatives towards digitalization, including the Virtual Pag-IBIG app where members can access some of their services as well as their partnership with PayMaya Philippines, Inc. where members can pay their contributions. — L.W.T. Noble

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