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PBCom bags approval to issue LTNCD worth P5 billion

Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCom) received the central bank approval to issue P5 billion worth of long-term negotiable certificates of deposit (LTNCD) to strengthen its long-term funding.
In a disclosure to the local bourse Tuesday, July 31, the listed lender said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has authorized its plan to issue peso-denominated LTNCDs of up to P5 billion as approved by its executive committee in May.
The capital raising activity will be done in one or more tranches in a year with tenors of at least five years and a day up to seven years.
Like regular time deposits offered by banks, LTNCDs offer higher interest rates. However, LTNCDs cannot be pre-terminated but can be sold on the secondary market, making them “negotiable.”
“The purpose of the issuance is for general corporate funding, especially long-term funding,” PBCom said in the previous regulatory filing. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

DM Wenceslao posts lower profit, revenues in second quarter

D.M. Wenceslao & Associates, Inc. (DMW) saw its attributable profit slip by 6% in the second quarter of 2018, as revenues likewise slowed during the period.
In a regulatory filing, the newly listed property developer reported a net income attributable to the parent of P503.13 million in the three months ending June, lower than the P535.32 million it realized in the same period a year ago.
The profit drop followed a 41% decline in DMW’s revenues to P637 million, versus the P1.07 billion it generated during the second quarter of 2017.
The company’s stronger performance in the first quarter allowed it to grow its attributable profit by 42% in the first half of the year to P969.8 million. Revenues however dropped 23% to P1.2 billion.
“Strong execution from our marketing, and construction teams is accelerating momentum across our businesses. We have completed our third commercial office building ahead of schedule and within budget,” DMW Chief Executive Officer Delfin Angelo C. Wenceslao said in a statement. — Arra B. Francia

Should your restaurant start offering delivery?

Arguably the most popular industry that young entrepreneurs want to get into is foodservice, especially in a food-loving country like the Philippines. Every block in Metro Manila has its own signature food joint, each competing to be the next viral Internet hit, and each offering the latest gimmick, trend, and hybrid cuisine.

But one area of foodservice that has not gained much attention is the food delivery business. As the digital era continues to take over Filipino life, more opportunities are becoming available to Filipino food brands looking to offer delivery services.

When ride-sharing and logistics services giant Grab Philippines unveiled its smart city vision to “empower a future of seamless mobility,” on-demand food delivery services were one of the company’s top priorities, along with logistics, cashless payments and financial services, to be integrated into its app.

This means that Filipinos can now not only book different types of Grab rides to get to work, they can also pay for their favorite lunch meal with GrabPay, deliver gifts to their loved ones through GrabExpress, and even order their dinner and eat in the comfort of their home with GrabFood.

GrabFood, in particular, can spell huge opportunities for food merchants in the Philippines, as the transport network vehicle service company has promised to make significant technology investments in its platform to bring an expanded range of online consumer services this 2018.

“Consumers will now be able to order food from restaurants near them through the newly launched GrabFood within the app. With no minimum order required, consumers can satisfy their cravings and order from the wide selection of cuisines available, enjoying the convenience of having their favorite food delivered fast, right to their doorsteps,” Grab said in a statement.

More important, foodservice delivery is going beyond its status as simply an add-on for restaurants, becoming a necessity in the industry globally. According to international information firm The NPD Group, foodservice delivery in the United States has been taking in sizable gains in terms of visits and sales over the last five years, despite the general weakness of the market.

Restaurants saw an increase in delivery sales by about a fifth, while delivery foodservice visits were up 10% on the back of the growth of digital ordering, which now represents over half of all delivery visits.

“Delivery has become a need to have and no longer a nice to have in the restaurant industry,” Warren Solochek, The NPD Group senior vice-president for industry relations, said.

“Restaurants need delivery in today’s environment in order to gain and maintain share. It has become a consumer expectation.”

The NPD Group report, titled ‘The Future of Foodservices Snapshot: Restaurant Delivery,” goes on to show that consumers have become so accustomed to ordering delivery that they are ordering it at breakfast and lunch in addition to dinner, which historically has been the most popular daypart to order it. Growth of delivery at dinner has remained flat over the last five years and has grown at breakfast and lunch.

Although digital ordering is a major contributor to the growth of foodservice delivery, using the phone to order still represents 49% of delivery visits. Third-party delivery services, like UberEats, Grubhub and DoorDash, account for much of the digital delivery growth. However, the share of digital delivery by third-party services is more than double among full-service restaurants than quick-service outlets.

“Convenience is among the chief reasons why consumers visit restaurants and delivery brings a heightened level of it,” Mr. Solochek said. “We forecast that delivery will grow over the next five years and the growth will source to non-traditional delivery outlets and dayparts.”

In the Philippines, the availability and the growth of services like FoodPanda, Honestbee, and The Delivery Guy is proof enough that such international trends are making their way here. The restaurant landscape is changing fast, and sooner or later Filipino brands will have to adapt.

In Grab’s case, its existing and new delivery partners from its already-thriving GrabExpress courier service, can generate additional income and job opportunities from delivering food orders on top of delivering parcels.

The company plans to provide food establishments and restaurants with their own online storefront to serve the online and mobile population by leveraging the fleet of delivery partners, eliminating the need to rely solely on foot traffic by customers to their shops or stalls as their primary source of revenue.

They will also get the added benefit of incremental business revenue by tapping the large user base of Grab and gaining access to GrabFood’s promotional schemes and marketing channels to grow their business.

“GrabFood is the next major step in our move to serve the daily needs of consumers. Food delivery is a natural extension of our transport offerings. Each day, millions of people in Southeast Asia rely on ride-hailing services to bring them from place to place, as well as food delivery services to save time from travelling around in congested cities to satisfy their cravings. With the expansion of GrabFood across the region, we are working with local merchants and delivery partners to deliver the best of Manila’s kitchens to the doorsteps of our consumers,” said Brian Cu, country head of Grab Philippines. — Bjorn Biel M. Beltran

A genie for your styling needs

By Romsanne R. Ortiguero, Special Features Writer

It all started two years ago when Abbie Victorino, now 28 years old, was eating lunch prepared by a lunch delivery service she was subscribed to back then.

Having a day job and running a side business of supplying accessories to an e-commerce site made her so busy that she hardly found time to eat proper lunch or choose what to wear every morning.

She thought to herself, “Buti pa ’yung isa kong problem, it’s solved already. But why isn’t there a delivery plan for clothes? So, I said, what if I’m the one who would do it?”

As a former international fashion buyer and model with a background in the field of e-commerce, she tried to capitalize on these musings. This is how StyleGenie, a styling subscription box was founded, in 2016.

“I talked to my friends and said, ‘I have this idea, it’s crazy, but do you think people would subscribe to styling box?’ It’s actually doing a lot better in the US, and I think in Singapore now, so, why not do it here in the Philippines?” Ms. Victorino told BusinessWorld in an interview.

StyleGenie is considered the first styling and clothing subscription box in the Philippines. According to Ms. Victorino, they aim to provide a unique shopping experience for the customers, and at the same time, be the genie that makes fashion wishes come true.

“We want to make closet wishes come true. We don’t want to be just a shop. We want to be someone who can help you develop and improve your style that’s why we called it a genie. Let us know what you want to achieve and we’ll grant your wish. We are a digital stylist. The value really is you get to know your personal style and personal branding which is also a very ‘in’ thing now.”

Ms. Victorino noted that they have grown exponentially since launching their enterprise. They now have around 2,500 active subscribers and, at the time of this writing, 23,000 organic Facebook followers.

“I guess the next step for us to scale up is to really market it. So we’re actually raising funds because we want to market it to the whole Philippines. We plan to expand to Southeast Asian countries,” she said.

She continued, “We plan to expand as well to Malaysia soon, before the year ends and then from there, go to other countries next.”

StyleGenie would not have been possible if not for the right partners Ms. Victorino found — 29-year-old Steph Oller and 28-year-old Rhijean Sarenas, who share Ms. Victorino’s vision for StyleGenie.

“To be honest I tapped like 10 girl friends of mine, and they were the few who really believed in me in the beginning. Their eyes sparkled when I was pitching my basic five-slide presentation. They got the idea and they’re like, ‘This is going to work’,” Ms. Victorino said.

“It’s very important that you have the same vision — that you see where the company is going, what kind of purpose, or what kind of problem you are really solving. We believe that clothes may not change the world but the people who wear them can. That’s our belief. And we’re very happy and that’s what keeps us together. It’s also because we see the results — we see customers e-mailing us back and saying how we granted their wishes and how we made them confident about how we made them feel more adventurous in style but still feel good about it.”

For those who want to start a business in the e-commerce space, Ms. Victorino underscored that now is the best time.

“There’s never a right time to start a business. It’s now especially in e-commerce. We’re in a very good time since everything will be digital in the near future. When you are already in the offline space, then it’s a good time for you to be online, and if you have nothing at all, then it’s a great time for you to go online. Online is less costly, it’s less of a risk — although there still is — but having an online business gives you a lot more flexibility.”

A couture dream come true

Though Isabella Romarate had studied journalism to enter law school, she pursued an altogether different goal of starting a business.

“It was in my final semester that I not only realized but also had the guts to go for what my mother and I had dreamed of. I was certain in pursuing journalism as a pre-law course. But times change, and naturally people do, too,” Ms. Romarate told BusinessWorld in an e-mail.

She is the co-founder and co-owner of Rafols Collection, a clothing store specializing in couture gowns. It also purveys ready-to-wear items, such as formal and casual dresses, skirts, suits, blazers and slacks for women.

“Venturing into this business is like finally having my eyeglasses fixed. In college, everything seemed vague. However, when my mother offered me to start this business with her, everything went clear. I had a vision. I was inspired [by our dream]. And it felt good to finally see the future through the right lens,” Ms. Romarate said.

“Rafols” is actually the maiden name of her mother, Sarah Romarate. “It was her idea, because it is also a longtime dream of hers [to have a garments business]. I definitely agreed with that because since I was a kid, I noticed that people always found my middle name quite odd,” Ms. Romarate said.

Being new in the business did not intimidate Ms. Romarate, who puts to good use the skills she learned in journalism school especially in creating marketing materials.

Ms. Romarate and her mother do the designing, and in their creation process, their top priorities are a client’s style and taste. However, in their ready-to-wear apparel, they showcase their own fashion tastes and preferences.

“The clients usually set an appointment online, but we also accept walk-ins. We draw their ideas right in front of them so they can visualize them. For our ready-to-wear garments, we only create a few to preserve uniqueness and a sense of giving the buyers a mind-set that they will only be among the very few to wear such clothes,” she explained.

Rafols Collection’s goal is to make its clients feel original. “At a time when ready-to-wear clothes are ‘in,’ people can’t escape from the probability that they’ll meet a person with the same clothes. The best thing about having designer clothes is never having to worry about such probability. We want them to feel the best they can while wearing the garment. We want them to be happy once they step out of our doors,” Ms. Romarate said.

In addition to expanding Rafols Collection’s reach, Ms. Romarate desires to help the less fortunate by creating and giving clothes to them. “Helping has been a part of our family values,” she said. For instance, part of the proceeds from her 18th birthday celebration went to an elementary school in Antique.

Addressing poverty through fashion

Habi Footwear is an enterprise that grew out of a thesis project involving women from a community mired in poverty.

“We had an immersion in an urban poor community where we scanned possible opportunities for livelihood and got to know and live with the mothers. It was a great experience and it opened us to endless ways in which we can work with them,” Janine Mikaella Chiong, president and co-founder of Habi Footwear, told BusinessWorld in an e-mail.

“After figuring out which skills to start with, we decided to bank on their skills in weaving rugs after finding out that they earned too little from their output (around P10-P15 per foot).”

To maximize the income and the skills of those women, Ms. Chiong said they “decided to incorporate woven mats into footwear as we wanted to come up with a functional, affordable yet stylish brand of shoes that will capture the market.”

Habi has come to be known for this inventive footwear since its establishment in 2012. Through the support of different people — from business partners to customers — it has grown into a lifestyle enterprise that purveys not only espadrilles, sandals and heels, but also bags, pouches and corporate giveaways.

“Our aim is to address poverty and lack of empowerment and livelihood opportunities for women in communities,” Ms. Chiong said.

The Habi team consists of Ms. Chiong, who is also in charge of the sales and marketing; Bernadee Uy, head of finance and community development; Maria Paulina Savillo, head of product development; and Allister Roy Chua, operations manager.

Habi’s expansion means more financially rewarding opportunities for its partners. Currently, it has partnerships with four communities in Quezon City, and it engages a total of 30 weavers on an output basis, around half of whom earn as much as P200 a day with good output.

“We have also started to partner with other communities in Ifugao and the correctional facility of Mandaluyong,” Ms. Chiong said.

She considers teamwork, passion, and transparency as keys to a better work environment. She also said that it is important that the right product is backed by the right team and released to the right market.

For the Habi team, success is measured not only by financial and developmental sustainability but also by the impact on the quality of lives of their community partners. “We try as much as possible to really gauge their well-being and productivity within the company,” Ms. Chiong said.

When asked to give advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, she said, “Just start. Don’t let ideas stay on paper. If you want to put up your business, don’t be motivated just by prestige or profit. Wherever you are, find something that bothers you and do something about it in whatever endeavor you wish to pursue.”

BancNet 28th Anniversary: Furthering e-payments in the country

Having started operations in July 1990, BancNet has been known to deliver safe, efficient, and reliable services to its members, including transactions not only at Automated Teller Machines (ATM) but also at point-of-sale (POS) terminals, the Internet, and mobile phones.

With a growing demand for more ease and convenience in payments, BancNet’s role as the Philippines’ multi-bank, multi-channel electronic payments network is becoming more relevant than ever. Fueled by its commitment to continuous innovation, BancNet aims to help the country keep pace with a fast-changing world.

In 2017, BancNet played a vital role in preparing the National Retail Payment System’s (NRPS) implementation and became the clearing switch operator of the automated clearing house for low-value, real-time electronic fund transfer called “instaPay.” NRPS is a program spearheaded by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which further promotes electronic payments in the country.

BancNet also positively noted in its recent annual report that it was able to deliver a strong financial performance in 2017, with total assets and total equity reaching P1.19 billion and P1.01 billion, respectively.

“We sustained a steady growth with a 6.95% increase in switched transactions during the year. Although gross revenues, amounting to P386.32 million, and net income, at P80.25 million, were lower compared to the previous year, the downward adjustment in BancNet’s switching fee translated to a lower cost to network participants. Our composite cost per ATM transaction charged to participants declined by 61%. The year ended with a modest return on equity of 7.78%,” President Cezar P. Consing said in the report.

Another testament to the country’s sole electronic payments network’s solid performance is the remarkable numbers it posted in 2017 and in the early part of the year. As of June 30 of this year, BancNet’s ATM network grew from 19,894 units in 2016 to 20,153; while its POS network showed an increase from 141,465 terminals to 251,870. Its total active cards, meanwhile, hit 67,635,705.

BancNet also reported that in 2017, it was able to process 630.5 million switched transactions of nearly 72 million debit cards, which grew by 40.96 million or 6.95% from the 2016 volume. Despite these huge transaction volumes, the company noted that the average switch availability rate stood at a high 99.84%.

In the first half of 2018, BancNet reported a total of 310.76 million switched transactions compared with the 300.69 million total switched transactions in the first half of 2017. On the other hand, the company already recorded 1.7 million average daily switched transactions in first half 2018 compared with the 1.67 million in the first half of last year.

The consortium was also able to grow its membership to 121 which consists of banks, cooperatives, electronic money issuers and independent ATM deployers.

In terms of improving security in e-payments, BancNet highlighted its work involving Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) migration and certification, which has helped make payments made through its network more secure.

“BancNet led the industry’s shift to this global security standard and throughout 2017, we supported our members’ EMV migration through technical testing and compliance certification of their host systems, terminals and chip cards. By the end of the year, 86% of members’ issuer host systems and 90% of acquirer host systems had been certified EMV-compliant,” BancNet mentioned in the report.

The company also enhanced the security of online payments on its Web portal — the BancNet Online — by implementing a Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) system as an added layer of security on top of the ATM PIN. This system requires the keying in of other information including username, password, and a one-time PIN that only the cardholder knows in order to validate his or her identity.

BancNet said that it is at the crossroads, given various factors at play that affect the whole financial industry landscape. Despite this, it remains confident, asserting that it has successfully risen to the demands of transformation and evolution through these years.

“The financial industry is being driven by rapid technological developments and growing sophistication in consumer needs and wants. Our challenge is to always stay abreast of and adopt the right technologies to address the needs of our members. We are in a unique position to actually influence how our country’s financial industry can evolve,” Chairman Nestor V. Tan noted.

“To fulfill our mandate, it is imperative that we keep our financials robust and adopt a different mind-set. We should focus more on sourcing capabilities rather than building them; more on connectivity rather than competition, and more on product infrastructure rather than product features. We should explore more strategic partnerships to deliver shared services that will expand our footprint while reducing costs to our members.”

A digital superhighway to progress

Recognizing the tremendous effect of cashless transactions on economic growth, electronic payments are being adopted globally at an outstanding pace. In the Philippines, in particular, BancNet continues to be at the forefront of the said adoption, driving the shift in payments from cash to cashless and making payment solutions accessible to as many Filipinos as possible.

As the country’s sole electronic payments network, BancNet has been facilitating interbank fund transfers and payment via debit to an ATM account for almost three decades now. Last year, the consortium of banks has taken on a new and bigger role by being part of the National Retail Payments System (NRPS), a program spearheaded by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which promotes electronic payments in the country.

Early in 2017, the BSP identified two priority automated clearing houses to be created immediately as part of the NRPS framework: low-value, real-time credit push and batch electronic funds transfer. BancNet was designated as the clearing switch operator for the former, dubbed instaPay. It supports real-time crediting of funds from a sender’s bank or electronic money issuer account to another bank or electronic money issuer account.

As the clearing switch operator, BancNet has built and operates the technical infrastructure of instaPay, designed to be the fastest way to move money in the country as it interconnects several financial institutions nationwide.

Launched last April 23, instaPay is an electronic fund transfer service that allows customers to conveniently transfer funds anytime and anywhere between accounts of participating BSP-supervised banks and non-bank electronic money issuers, using a mobile phone, tablet or laptop to access their mobile apps and/or Internet banking sites.

instaPay can be used to pay people like plumbers, caterers, doctors, lawyers and other providers of goods and services, as well as to send money as allowances of children or parents, as rent to a landlord, or as help for a sick relative. The recipient instantly receives the money in full without any charges deducted.

The maximum amount that can be sent per transaction through instaPay is P50,000; however, multiple fund transfers can be done in a day. The sending fee may vary from bank to bank or electronic money issuer, but BancNet assured that the charge, regardless of the amount sent or where it is sent, is affordable.

Keeping data privacy in mind, instaPay is protected by strict data security standards required by the central bank. One of these is two-factor authentication which verifies, through a unique code known only to the sender, whether the sender is the owner of the account or not.

instaPay is expected to be a major contributor to the BSP’s goal to increase the country’s electronic payments to 20% by 2020.

Fitbit Ionic: Getting better with age, thanks to OS updates

Fitbit’s first flagship smartwatch, Ionic, got the bad raps when it hit markets globally in late 2017. Early adopters complained about its lack of aesthetic appeal and its laggy performance. For Fitbit fans, the Ionic was supposed to be their ideal smartwatch: it has GPS, it’s water resistant, and it can last almost a week without charging. The Ionic seemed to have failed to meet their expectations.
To rectify whatever Fitbit got wrong about the Ionic, the company launched its second smartwatch seven months later, the Fitbit Versa. The Versa sported rounded edges, was thinner and more lightweight, and it was loaded with a better operating system. It was also priced lower than the Ionic by about P2,000.
While the Versa has undeniably outrun the Ionic in terms of popularity, the latter is not about to bonk any time soon. After all, the Ionic and the Versa are two separate product lines, and rumor has it that Fitbit will announce an Ionic 2 within the year.
The good news is, the Ionic is getting better and smarter thanks to a series of firmware updates that Fitbit started rolling out in March this year. This review is meant to highlight the changes made since the Ionic received these updates.

DESIGN AND FEATURES
(Note: If you only want to read about what’s new with the Ionic, you can skip the next four paragraphs)
Compared to popular smartwatches like the Apple Watch or Samsung Gear S3, the Ionic is not much of a looker. From afar, its flat, square watch face makes the wearer look like he’s wearing an ankle monitor — on the wrist. Men may like its sporty appeal, while women may not find the watch stylish enough to go well with fashion-forward outfits.
Fitbit has been known for fitness bands that are so lightweight the wearer forgets it’s there. Not for the Ionic. At about 30 grams, one can certainly feel the weight of the watch wrapped against one’s wrist. It’s bulky — most smartwatches are, anyway — and there could be a slight discomfort when typing because the band’s thick metal buckle keeps the wrist from resting on a flat surface. (I had to take off the watch when typing on the keyboard for long hours).
Don’t be fooled by the Ionic’s big square watch face. When the screen lights up, it reveals thick bezels framing a 1.42-inch diagonal display (smaller than Apple Watch’s 1.5-inch screen). A bezel-less display would have set the Ionic apart from the smartwatch crowd.
A disappointing screen real estate nonetheless, the display is vivid and it displays information clearly on broad daylight and even underwater (the Ionic has water resistance rating of 5 ATM or 50 meters). Alas, the screen’s responsiveness is poor. There’s a slight noticeable delay when swiping through the screen and activating some features.
When the Ionic was first released, there was not much about the display to write home about. With its operating system updated, the Ionic now has a more intuitive user interface, giving users more ways to interact with the watch.
Swiping up from the clockface will bring up an on-device dashboard called Fitbit Today, which displays a summary of one’s daily or weekly health and fitness stats, such as the number of steps, distance covered, and calories burned. Before the update, the fitness summary could only be viewed on the Fitbit mobile or desktop app. The Today feature also displays some useful health and fitness reminders as well as tips on how to use the platform.
Swiping down from the clock will display notifications from one’s email, text messages and other notifications from apps like Instagram and Facebook Messenger. To keep the watch from vibrating every minute, notifications for all the apps synced with the Ionic can be deactivated through the Fitbit mobile- or PC app.
In the course of this review, syncing the Ionic to the Fitbit app had been challenging. At times, the Fitbit app couldn’t locate the Ionic even if the watch was sitting right next to my mobile phone or laptop. Transferring music from the desktop app to the watch has not been smooth either. It turns out the last one is a common problem among Ionic users, which is why Fitbit posted on its support site ways to solve the issue. At times, the solutions worked but then there were days when the watch was just unwieldy. After a series of firmware updates, syncing the Ionic to the app somehow improved, although there are still hiccups every now and then.
As part of the update, Fitbit also added music streaming Deezer onboard the Ionic. However, only paying Deezer subscribers can use the app on Fitbit. Deezer offers a free three-month trial for users signing up on the music service through Fitbit for the first time. After that, Deezer will start charging your enrolled credit card.
Last May, Fitbit rolled out a second firmware update, which introduced a feature that made the Ionic more likeable. There’s now a quick reply option to e-mails, text messages and chat applications. Tapping the Reply button at the end of an app notification will show five pre-written responses. Users may choose to override the default responses and write personalized short messages. The quick reply feature, Fitbit notes, is only available on watches paired with an Android smartphone.
In an effort to broaden the Ionic’s appeal for female users, Fitbit also introduced a female health tracking feature, which allows users to track their menstrual cycle. For those trying to get pregnant, this feature also provides information about their estimated fertile window. Fitbit says it uses the data the users provide to estimate its predictions. Initially, it takes take into account the average cycle and period lengths the user provides during setup. For more accurate predictions, Fitbit recommends to log your period consistently.
PERFORMANCE
One of the best features of the Ionic is its battery life. This has consistently been Fitbit’s main selling point across all its fitness trackers. For most of the review period, the Ionic lasted for up to five days on a single charge. For days that didn’t include playing music on the watch and with e-mail notifications switched off, the Ionic was fully awake for about a week. It’s fast charging, too. Plugging it at empty-battery level only took about an hour to reach full battery level.
The Ionic also tracked most workouts and activities accurately. With GPS onboard, the Ionic showed me my running stats without taking my smartphone out. I took the Ionic for a jog around the University of the Philippines’ 2.2-kilometer Academic Oval on Sundays and, while I didn’t care much about my running stats at first, seeing my progress in terms of pace, the distance covered, and my heart rate during the run somehow motivated me to beat my stats in the succeeding sessions.
I also took the Ionic to swimming and it recorded laps accurately with additional insights such as calories burned and distance covered. The Ionic can also track other workout modes such as cycling, treadmill, weights, and interval training.

Fitbit Ionic can record the number hours your body enters into different stages of sleep: light, deep, and REM (rapid eye movement) stage.

Besides measuring fitness activities, another great thing about the Ionic is that it’s also a sleep monitoring tool. It’s amazing to learn (and slightly creepy at the same time) that the Ionic gets to work the moment you doze off. Using a combination of body movements and heart rate patterns, the watch can record the number hours your body enters into different stages of sleep: light, deep, and REM (rapid eye movement) stage. For someone who has an irregular sleep pattern, I learned a lot from looking at my sleep data.
VERDICT
While software updates can never change the Ionic’s unwieldy form, vast improvements in performance and onboard features still make this wearable hybrid a desirable choice for Fitbit followers. It’s still far from perfect but if Fitbit could bring more features into the device through software updates, the Ionic could get better and smarter over time. — Mira B. Gloria
The Fitbit Ionic is now priced at P14,999 on Lazada.com.ph, down from P15,690 when it hit stores in the Philippines back in January.

Economic execs assure on budget gap

State economic managers are looking for ways to cushion the fiscal impact on the national government of a Supreme Court ruling that would give local governments a bigger share in national taxes.

ECONOMIC MANAGERS are committed to keeping the government’s budget deficit manageable despite a Supreme Court (SC) ruling in favor of more state allocations to local governments, saying above-target revenue collections will help while they appeal the decision.
Members of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) met on Monday ahead of their presentation of economic assumptions today at the hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on the proposed P3.757-trillion 2019 national budget.
Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said state economic managers agreed that the Executive will file a motion for reconsideration (MR). “’Yung decision namin is to file an MR,” Mr. Diokno told reporters after the meeting.
Asked whether the government would keep its budget deficit ceiling this year at three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) despite the high court’s ruling, Mr. Diokno replied: “Sinabi naman namin na hindi naman negotiable ‘yun (We agreed that that level is non-negotiable).”
“We’re determined to… we can do it below three percent and at the same time without sacrificing the ‘Build, Build, Build’ and the social, we will do it.”
The high court’s July 23 ruling added tax collections of the Customs bureau to local governments’ annual internal revenue allotments, which have included just collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue so far.
The Budget chief said that complying with the ruling would cost the government some P160 billion more and economic managers had initially warned that implementing the ruling could jack up the fiscal deficit to as much as six percent of GDP.
One tack to keep the fiscal deficit intact would be devolving some functions, such as the conditional cash transfers, farm-to-market roads and health care services.
At the same time, Mr. Diokno said, making sure revenue collections hit or exceed targets will help as well.
“Halimbawa (for example), we’re ahead by eight percent sa revenue target (in the) first semester. So kung ganon, hindi namin mahihit ‘yung (It could turn out that we may not even hit the fiscal deficit) target. In fact, ganon nangyari last year. Our target was three percent (of GDP), ang lumabas (the actual budget gap hit just) 2.2% lang,” Mr. Diokno said.
Asked whether the pace of revenue growth would be sustained towards the end of the year, he replied: “Most likely above target kami.”
Mr. Diokno said the government will seek clarification on which taxes would be covered in its motion for reconsideration.
“We want to clarify what specific taxes are really covered. Kasi meron doon included and excluded. But there’s some taxes katulad ng lahat ng nakokolekta sa mga ecozones (like those collected in economic zones). Na-estimate din namin P40 billion ‘yon. Is it BIR? Is it national? So hindi namin alam (We do not know how those collections are classified.”
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III shared this view, saying: “What we want to do is get a clarification on the law, to see what it really means… One step at a time.”
Mr. Diokno also said that the DBCC was “ready” for the first budget deliberations at the House of Representatives scheduled today.
“We’ll talk about the macroeconomy, as well as the assumptions,” he said, noting that he expects concerns from legislators over high inflation that clocked in at a multi-year-high 5.2% in June and averaged 4.3% last semester — above the central bank’s 2-4% target range for full-year 2018.
“The IMF (International Monetary Fund) said it (intensified inflationary pressures) is transitory, and we’ll be back to 2-4%. Totoo naman ‘yun eh (That is true),” Mr. Diokno said, citing the need for Congress to approve a law that will bring back a regular tariff scheme for imported rice that will cut retail prices of the grain by an estimated P7 per kilogram, as well as for the Executive to implement mitigating measures for those affected by higher prices fueled by ongoing tax reform.
“Plus there’s the element that it’s demand-driven. We’re actually putting more money in the pockets of individuals: P35 billion every quarter. Ang laki ng pera non (That is a lot of cash),” he added, referring to lower personal income tax rates under Republic Act No. 10963, which had also increased or added taxes on several items.
The DBCC expects inflation to average 4-4.5% this year and 2-4% in 2019. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

Better regulations seen key to more innovation

THE PHILIPPINES needs more reforms in the regulations for small businesses to improve the country’s environment for innovation, according to INSEAD business school.
“The overall regulatory environment of the Philippines can still be significantly improved, especially from the point of view of labor markets and business environment. With regard to innovation, the examples of GII champions shows that providing a supportive environment for start-ups and venture capital is important,” Bruno Lanvin, executive director of Global Indices at INSEAD and co-editor of the Global Innovation Index (GII), said in an e-mailed response last week to questions.
“This includes clear bankruptcy laws, leaving room for the ‘right to fail’. The credibility of courts, and the priority granted to fighting corruption and increasing transparency in business contracts (including public procurement) are clearly key in that context. All of those should translate in higher GII rankings in the future,” he added.
The Philippines ranked 73rd out of 126 economies in the 2018 Global Innovation Index, steady from a year ago, which was “below average” according to a July 11 report from the Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The Philippines ranked ninth among the 30 lower-middle-income countries included in the index and placed 13th among 15 countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania.
The report noted that the country got high scores in Institutions, Human Capital & Research, Infrastructure, Business Sophistication, as well as Knowledge & Technology Outputs.
“The Philippines has a dynamic and young population. It is also part of the fastest growing region in the world. Aligning such resources with the foreseeable trends of the global economy… will be key for the future success and competitiveness of the country. Innovation policies have a critical role to play in this regard,” said Mr. Lanvin.
He also noted that further improving education and human capital “will be critically important” as “talents become more mobile and more precious internationally.”
“Similarly, improvements to the regulatory and legal frameworks (rule of law, ease of doing business) will remain central, as well as government policies heralding innovation as a national priority…” added Mr. Lanvin.
“It is clear that its ability to maintain open trade relations and favor a dynamic business environment and stable regulatory framework will help in this regard.”
A separate Philippine Institute for Development Studies report recommended improvement of small businesses’ competitiveness by enhancing the efficiency of ports and Customs operations, improving credit terms of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), incentivizing higher-value exports, encouraging links between SMEs and foreign or larger firms, as well as expanding entrepreneurial skills training. It also advised small businesses to find market niches where competition is not yet stiff, consider indirect exporting, take advantage of government support and networks such as Negosyo Centers and the Kapatid Mentor Me Program. — Elijah J. C. Tubayan

BSP forms fintech unit

THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) has formed a new unit to oversee financial technology (fintech) companies, as the regulator keeps up with increased digital payments.
BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. said the central bank last month established the new unit alongside another office for cybersecurity under the Financial Supervision Sector.
Mr. Espenilla said during a conference on payments and settlements on Friday that the Financial Technology Sub-Sector (FTSS) will “conduct the effective oversight of fintech and other innovative alternatives.”
Vicente T. De Villa III, officer-in-charge of the FTSS, said the unit was formed last month. It will handle two offices: the Payments and Settlements Oversight Department and the Core Information Technology Specialist Group.
“We are still overseeing banks, but banks and technology nowadays have to come hand-in-hand… There’s an outsourcing that takes place and we have to make sure that these outsourcing services are governed by our rules and regulations,” Mr. De Villa told reporters.
Most banks have embraced digital solutions by partnering with fintech companies, which are often technology firms that provide e-payment platforms.
The BSP has been upbeat about migrating to digital transactions, viewing it as the most efficient way to get more Filipinos aboard formal financial channels as majority remain unbanked.
The BSP said digitizing payment and remittance transactions would be crucial for financial inclusion, as this move would improve access and transaction costs.
The central bank has also organized a unit for cybersecurity, which is tasked to monitor compliance among financial firms as well as guard against cyber attacks and glitches.
The BSP has committed to embrace digital solutions by welcoming fintech players, with the goal of raising the share of e-payments to 20% of total transactions by the year 2020.
The FTSS will also oversee implementation of the National Retail Payment System, which includes creation of two clearing houses for e-payments and digital fund transfers. — Melissa Luz T. Lopez

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