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UN pushes sustainable shift to digital finance

THE UNITED NATIONS (UN) has encouraged countries to ramp up the use of technology in financial services while ensuring its sustainability to help them achieve their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

In a report released Thursday, the UN’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the SDGs said the coronavirus-induced crisis made people more aware of the importance of digital finance as it helped in fast-tracking the release of cash handouts to affected sectors and in allowing retail businesses to go online to stay afloat, among others.

“This surge in the digital world amplifies the opportunity and the need for it to be harnessed in the longer-term pursuit, and financing, of sustainable development,” the report titled “People’s Money: Harnessing Digitalization to Finance a Sustainable Future” read.

“The international community should act in reshaping financial systems in line with sustainable development. If we fail to do so, we will fail to deliver the 2030 Agenda,” it added.

It said the push for digitalization should be “citizen-centric” where citizens are empowered both on their basic financial affairs and about public financing as well. This could also widen financial inclusion, it said.

“Digital technologies, which are revolutionizing financial markets, can be a game-changer in meeting our shared objectives,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres was quoted as saying.

The Task Force made three recommendations: advancing catalytic opportunities; building foundations for sustainable digital finance such as infrastructures, digital ID, planning, institutions and capacity-building, as well as strengthening related policies and regulations.

It laid out five catalytic opportunities to guide countries in aligning digital financing with the SDGs, namely: “to channel domestic savings into development financing; enhance financing for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs); digitalize public financing and make public budgets and contracts transparent; embed SDGs into decisions financial and capital markets; and shape consumption decisions through improved information and choice architecture.”

However, the UN warned that new risks may emerge as digitalization efforts ramp up, such as the increase in fraudulent transactions, illicit financial flows and security breaches.

“Digitalization may increase short-termism in financial markets. Digitalization increases the likelihood of a new generation of highly concentrated financial markets because of its tendency to provide ever-increasing benefits to scale. It may reduce an autonomous economic policy space through the loss of control over macroeconomic and monetary policy,” it said.

The Task Force, established by the UN Secretary General in November 2018, is mandated to study and recommend short to medium-term framework on how digitalization can be used to accelerate financing of the SDGs.

The recent publication is the Task Force’s final report.

The UN Secretary General has set a roadmap for digital cooperation aiming to achieve universal connectivity by 2030; promote digital public goods; expand digital inclusion; improve digital capacity-build; make sure human rights are protected; support global cooperation on artificial intelligence; establish trust and security; and build better architecture for cooperation.

Member states of the UN committed in 2019 to achieve the SDG agenda by 2030, which includes the goal to end poverty and hunger, provide quality education, promote inclusive economic growth and reduce inequality, among others. — B.M. Laforga

BSP wants to count green loans against Agri-Agra compliance

THE CENTRAL BANK is looking to encourage lenders to build up their  sustainable loans by counting these as part of the mandated Agri-Agra credit,  Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said.

“We are looking for regulatory incentives that can be granted to banks that adhere to these principles. This includes our proposal to consider lending for green projects as compliance to the Agri-Agra requirements,” Mr. Diokno said in an online briefing on Thursday.

Under Republic Act 10000 or the Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act, lenders are required to allocate 25% of their loanable funds to the agriculture and agrarian reform sector.

However, compliance with the agriculture segment quota was only at 10.8% while the agrarian reform side only consisted 1.09% of banks’ total lending, both well below the 15% and 10% credit quotas, respectively. Mr. Diokno has said they observed banks would rather pay the 0.5% penalty instead of loaning to the sector which they perceive to be high risk and high cost.

The central bank chief said BSP Circular No. 1085 which lays out a sustainable finance framework for banks so far does not prescribe a minimum loan requirement for green and sustainable products.

“This will depend on the bank’s strategic objectives and risk appetite in relation to the adoption of sustainability principles,” Mr. Diokno said.

Lenders will be given three years to adapt to the provisions of the sustainable finance framework, which lays out the adoption of sustainability principles through environmental and social risk management systems.

So far, local banks have issued sustainability bonds worth $1.795 billion and social bonds totalling P21.5 billion, BSP data showed.

In 2019, 10.6% of the total loan portfolio of the banking system went to finance green and social projects that are in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, the BSP said. — L.W.T. Noble

Meralco fined for lockdown billing woes

THE CORPORATE regulator has fined Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) P19 million for ignoring advisories on billing customers during the lockdown.

The utility giant failed to inform clients that their bills for March to May had been estimated, while failing to comply with an order to allow them to pay in installments, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said in a statement on Thursday.

“Meralco’s neglect to provide accurate and timely information especially during this time of pandemic has created chaos and confusion to most of the electricity-consuming public,” the regulator said.

“This serious neglect by Meralco resulted in a multitude of complaints filed by its consumers to this commission,” ERC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Agnes VST Devanadera said.

The regulator said it had evaluated billing statements submitted by complainants, its own employees, the office of Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian and consumer group National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms.

It charged the utility P100,000 for every continuing violation that started on May 5, when the ERC first issued its advisory on lockdown billings, to July 9, when Meralco issued personalized letters to consumers explaining their bills.

The company will study the order and file an appropriate pleading after consulting its lawyers, said Meralco’s Regulatory Management Head Jose Ronald V. Valles in a statement. It said it had not received the ERC ruling dated Aug. 20.

Clean power advocacy group Power for People Coalition welcomed the regulator’s decision, but said the fine was unlikely to hurt Meralco financially.

“We prefer that ERC instead look into the issue of consumer money that Meralco is holding on to, as these refunds amount to billions and can have a direct positive impact on the cash flow of residential customers, more than any fine ever could,” it said.

Ms. Devanadera said distribution utilities should take the commission’s advisories “very seriously.”

“Our advisories were issued to aid electricity consumers in light of the ongoing pandemic,” she said. “It was supposed to provide a respite from the various financial woes of consumers.”

A number of consumers reported a spike in their May electricity bills, which later turned out to be just estimates. The government had allowed such estimates based on consumers’ power usage three months before the lockdown.

This prompted ERC to order electricity distributors to conduct physical meter readings and charge consumers for actual consumption during the quarantine months.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte locked down the entire Luzon island in mid-March to contain a coronavirus pandemic. People should stay home except to buy food and other basic goods, he said.

The lockdown on the island was extended twice and thrice for Metro Manila. The lockdown in most areas has since been relaxed.

Meanwhile, the ERC ordered Meralco to cover the distribution, supply and metering charges of its lifeline customers — those that consume less than 100 kilowatt-hours — at the next billing cycle. The charge accounts for about a fifth of the utility’s total charges.

The estimated P200 million worth of discount is a form of temporary economic relief for more than two million poor consumers. The company must file a compliance report to the ERC.

Meralco President and Chief Executive Officer Ray C. Espinosa told congressmen at a hearing on Wednesday that the company would shoulder P101 million in distribution charges on its lifeline customers.

Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Adam J. Ang

FDCP grants incentives for foreign film/TV shoots in PHL

TWO films, an action TV series, and an offshoot of the Survivor reality show franchise were announced as the first recipients of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) film incentive programs meant to encourage more producers to shoot their films in the Philippines.

“The goal of these incentives is to open up the industry for collaboration with the rest of the world, for people to discover how talented we are, how good we are in providing service, and how the Philippines can be a global creative hub for films,” Mary Liza B. Diño, chairperson and CEO of the FDCP, said in a statement.

Last year, the FDCP announced two incentive programs: the Film Location Incentive Program (FLIP) and the International Co-Production Fund (ICOP). Both programs allow films shot in the Philippines or a Filipino feature film with an international co-production to get a cash rebate of up to P10 million of qualifying production costs which include artist and technician fees, film permits, transport, food expenses, among others, incurred in the Philippines. The minimum spending requirement for the film location incentive is at P8 million while the co-production incentive has a minimum spending requirement of P5 million.

The two incentive programs are under the overarching the FilmPhilippines program.

The first cycle of the incentive program was launched in January 2020.

Almost Paradise, a video-on-demand series directed by Dean Devlin (of Independence Day fame), is the first FLIP recipient as the series was shot in Mactan, Cebu. The series follows the adventures of a former US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent who relocated to the Philippines. Meanwhile, Survivor Russia, the Russian edition of the long-running survival reality series, shot 13 episodes in El Nido, Palawan.

Both Survivor Russia and Almost Paradise will receive a 20% cash rebate on qualified production expenses.

For the co-production incentive, FDCP named Nocebo, a supernatural thriller by Lorcan Finnegan, and Kapag Nawala na ang Alon (When the Waves are Gone) by award-winning film auteur Lav Diaz, as the first two recipients of the incentive.

Nocebo, shot in Ireland and the Philippines, tells the story of a Filipina maid who is out to take revenge on the Irish family she worked for. The film is a co-production between Wild Swim Films from the UK, Epicmedia Productions, Inc. from the Philippines, and Lovely Productions from Ireland. Nocebo is getting P6.5 million from the incentive fund to cover qualified production costs.

Kapag Nawala na ang Alon (When the Waves are Gone), meanwhile, is a film shot in Lisbon, Portugal and in Tagaytay and Manila in the Philippines. The film is a revenge drama and a reinterpretation of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo co-produced by Epicmedia Productions, Inc. from the Philippines, Snowglobe from Denmark, and Films Boutique from France. The film will get P6 million to cover qualified production costs.

As an accompanying program, FDCP’s Film Location Engagement Desk (FLEX) helps assist local and foreign productions with government transactions and endorses international productions to Filipino production companies registered with FDCP’s National Registry.

“We need to highlight what sets the Philippines apart from the rest of Asia: English is a second language to us. That’s a significant advantage. We are also flexible when it comes to accommodating sudden changes in production. We certainly make things happen,” Ms. Diño said of the program.

Those interested in applying for the incentive programs can do so starting Sept. 1 to Nov. 27.

For more information, visit www.filmphilippines.com. — Zsarlene B. Chua

Pandemic may push Japan banks’ credit costs to crisis levels — Suzuki

TOKYO — Japanese financial institutions may see credit costs balloon to levels hit during the global financial crisis if a resurgence in coronavirus infections hammer the economy, Bank of Japan (BoJ) board member Hitoshi Suzuki said.

Suzuki said the BoJ’s massive stimulus programme was helping cushion the economic blow from the pandemic, with the benefits of ultra-loose policy still exceeding the costs.

But the strain on financial institutions from ultra-low rates could intensify as they respond to government requests to boost lending to firms hit by COVID-19, Mr. Suzuki warned.

“With the economy having lost momentum to achieve our price target due to the pandemic, our monetary easing will last even longer” and would require the central bank to be more vigilant to the accumulating side-effects of its policy, Mr. Suzuki said.

“If a second and third wave of infection hits Japan, financial institutions’ credit costs could balloon to levels near those hit after (the 2008) collapse of Lehman Brothers,” he said in a speech in Asahikawa, northern Japan, on Thursday.

Japan has seen a resurgence in coronavirus infections after nationwide state of emergency measures ended in late May. The country has reported 64,904 cases in total and 1,230 deaths.

The BoJ has eased policy twice this year amid a deepening recession and created a lending facility to encourage banks to boost lending to firms hit by COVID-19.

But the massive loans backed by the BoJ and the government may squeeze financial institutions’ margins further by weighing on lending rates, said Mr. Suzuki, a former commercial banker.

The impact of ultra-low interest rates on the economy may also be limited as companies pile up savings instead of boosting investment, he added.

Japanese companies’ total internal reserves stood at a record 463 trillion yen ($4.37 trillion) in fiscal 2018, up 65% in the past decade, according to government data. — Reuters

Phoenix Petroleum lists P3.1 billion of debt paper at PDEx

PHOENIX PETROLEUM Philippines, Inc. has listed P3.1 billion in securities on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx), which it plans to use to fund its fuel and lubricant imports.

The company listed the 332-day commercial debt paper on Aug. 26 after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved it, it said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday.

The listing of the notes, which have a 5% annual discount rate, is the fourth tranche of Phoenix’s P7-billion commercial paper program launched earlier this month.

“We are grateful that against the backdrop of bounding uncertainties in the market, we have been able to successfully return to PDEx,” President and Chief Operating Officer Henry Albert R. Fadullon said at the company’s virtual listing.

Limited inventory due to credit tightening had made it difficult for Phoenix to recover in the second quarter, resulting in weaker-than-expected volume in domestic fuel, it said in a separate statement on its quarterly performance.

“Regional and local developments within the industry and credit markets have tightened access to working capital,” Mr. Fadullon said in the statement. “We saw this hamper our recovery as we had to divert resources to debt service and pull back on inventory replenishment.”

Phoenix posted a net loss of P5 million in the second quarter, which it said was “significantly lower” than its P386-million loss a quarter earlier. Revenue for the three months through June fell by 30%.

Phoenix shares rose by 0.18% to close at P11.20 each. — Adam J. Ang

Writer, publisher, art patron Gilda Cordero-Fernando, 90

RENOWNED writer and publisher Gilda Cordero-Fernando, known for her musings on Philippine arts and culture and a great supporter of the arts, passed at the age of 90 on Aug. 27.

Her death was confirmed by her family who wrote that there was “no need for funeral services” as Lola Mad (as she was called) “held her own wake earlier,” according to a Facebook post by her son, Mol Fernando.

Mr. Fernando was talking about a 2012 column Ms. Cordero-Fernando wrote for The Phiilippine Daily Inquirer where she talked about having her wake while still alive because she wanted to enjoy it. She talked about being inspired to do so after hearing “Oh Moon of Alabama” sung by Marianne Faithful. She also talked about wanting a paper house mansion (because she always wanted to own a mansion) like those found in Chinese wakes as the Chinese believe that burning paper embodiment of material goods (paper, houses, cars, etc) will make the spirit have it in the next life. She found one in Ongpin but found it so expensive, she just decided to make one. Ms. Cordero-Fernandez also chose 10 “shock-proof” friends (Eric “Kidlat Tahimik” de Guia, Jose Estrella, Mariel Francisco, and Rody Vera, to name a few) to make three-minute presentations to celebrate her life.

Celebrating a wake before her actual death is indicative of what kind of personality Ms. Cordero-Fernando had as a multi-hyphenate creator (writer, publisher, visual artist, fashion designer, art curator, playwright, and producer) and lifetime patron of the arts. National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin once said of her: “We have no other writer capable of such sublime nonsense.”

In a more scholarly form, she was described by the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (ALIWW) as the “Philippine culture’s towering figure, for the broad, impressive range of her accomplishments.”

Her short fiction titles, The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker (1962), A Wilderness of Sweets (1973), and its compilation version, Story Collection (1994) were said to “ring in the reader’s ears in well-turned English and fill the mind with curious characters — people in the war, sunburned Filipinos with the American twang, queer designers in the world of high fashion, the humble folk cooped in a bust, a Dust Monster, even the Anti-Christ,” ALIWW noted.

She also wrote the book Philippine Food and Life (1992) with Alfredo Roces and worked on Filipino Heritage, a 10-volume study on Philippine history and culture in 1978. She founded GCF Books that published a dozen titles about Philippine culture and society including Turn of the Century, Philippine Ancestral Houses, and The History of the Burgis.

She won many awards in her life including the Carlos C. Palanca Memorial Award for Literature and the Philippines Free Press award. Her Palanca-winning stories are “The Morning Before Us” (1954), “Sunburn” (1957), “A Wilderness of Sweets” (1964), and “Early in Our World” (1967.)

The Cultural Center of the Philippines awarded her its highest honors, the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining for Literature and Publishing, in 1994.

As a visual artist, she painted a series of women portraits now sold as a card set. In 2001, she produced Pinoy Pop Culture, a show and book for apparel company Bench. It was a night filled with Filipino novelty and pop songs and camp with a burgis audience.

Her shows were things that defied basic definition: in 1995, she staged “Jamming on an Old Saya,” a show at the Cultural Center of the Philippines to launch the book of the same name. It was a play, it was a fashion show, it was a celebration of the Philippine traditional dress, and it had an almost-nude man painted in gold on stage. She also held a birthday celebration for the wheelchair-bound hero of the Revolution Apolinario Mabini where she and other artists bedecked wheelchairs with wings and other decorations, turning them into mobile art.

“This is my theory in life: Some people create the same things over and over and over — and they make masterpieces. I don’t like doing the same thing again and again, ever. Sometimes I’m doing a play; sometimes I’m doing a fashion show; sometimes I’m doing whatever. I will never do the same thing. My happiness is the change, the movement, the difference in the things I do,” Ms. Cordero-Fernando told High Life magazine in 2017, and no words could describe her better than the words she used to describe herself. (https://www.bworldonline.com/celebrating-beauty-gilda-cordero-fernando/)

Such was her character and contribution to Philippine arts that it feels like writing an obituary would be a disservice to her when her life is better told in her own writing, as an author of books and short stories, as a columnist for the Manila Chronicles and Philippine Daily Inquirer, through her various stages and exhibits, and through countless anecdotes.

Gilda Cordero-Fernandeo was born on June 4, 1930 and passed on Aug. 27, 2020. This writer hopes she got the mansion she wanted. — Zsarlene B. Chua

CIC’s system now covers 18.2 million Filipinos

THE STATE-RUN Credit Information Corp. (CIC) has covered 18.2 million Filipinos in its credit information system so far as more financial institutions (FIs) join and submit credit data.

The CIC said in a statement on Thursday that its database now covers 80.4 contracts as of this month, but the coverage is seen expanding further with more FIs participating and submitting their borrowers’ credit data.

“This means that the CIC covers the average Filipino when it comes to credit reports—not just those who have credit cards or have loans with commercial banks, but even cooperative members and those who turn to lending and financing companies, especially during these uncertain times,” CIC President and CEO Jaime Casto Jose P. Garchitorena was quoted as saying.

Around 519 lenders have started submitting live or the actual basic credit data of their clients, CIC said.

On Aug. 19, it said there were 15 new institutions that joined, most of which were cooperatives, lending companies and rural banks.

“Cooperatives are key players in the country’s financial ecosystem especially during this pandemic where cooperatives are active front liners in terms of getting credit in areas outside the reach of traditional lending,” Mr. Garchitorena said.

“The on-boarding of credit data from cooperatives is crucial in achieving the goal of inclusivity of the credit registry — by having credit reports available to even the smallest and most distant borrowers — as envisioned by the law,” he added.

The CIC provides credit reports and other data that lenders and other institutions can access subject to fees, terms and conditions.

The CIC also recently rolled out its Primary ID Number Tagging System aiming to address the issues encountered by cooperatives and microfinance institutions on borrowers with no access to government-issued IDs.

Republic Act No. 9510 or the Credit Information System Act (CISA), mandates the CIC to set up a comprehensive and centralized credit information system that will be used to collect and distribute credit-related information of all participating entities. — B.M. Laforga

Coke posts worst sales during height of lockdown

COCA-COLA Beverages Philippines, Inc. posted its worst sales in the country after losing demand from restaurant and convenience store clients, which account for at least half of its revenue, amid a coronavirus lockdown.

“We definitely have seen consumption patterns change dramatically,” Coca-Cola Philippines President and General Manager Winn Everhart said at a news briefing on Thursday.

“Businesses that are away from home that used to be close to 50% of our business if not more have pretty much gone away,” he added.

Majority of sales shifted to home-based consumption, the company said.

While consumers tended to stock up on Coke products during the lockdown, this did not make up for the sales decline as people cut their trips to stores.

Sales in March and April were “the worst months we’ve ever experienced within the Philippines,” although demand has since improved, Mr. Everhart said.

“We do see it sequentially getting better,” he said. “We’re still declining depending on your day or week or month, but at the same time, we do have certain categories or channels within those categories that are doing really well.”

The company expects 2021 to remain a “tough year” even if Filipino consumers are more resilient than the rest of the world, he added.

The first four to five weeks of quarantine restrictions also led to distribution delays, causing a dip in supplies, Coca-Cola President and Chief Executive Officer Gareth McGeown said at the same briefing.

The Philippine-based company bottles and distributes Coca-Cola products such as soft drinks, water and juices in the country.

The company in July said it was investing P1.1 billion more in its local operations for 2020 as it adds new production lines in Luzon and Mindanao. This includes investments in Misamis Oriental, Zamboanga and Santa Cruz, outside Davao.

This puts total investment for the year at P4.74 billion.

Mr. McGeown said the company hired about 140 people at the end of last year to operate more manufacturing lines.

Coca-Cola delayed the development of its P1-billion recyclable polyethylene terephthalate bottle recycling facility to next year because of the lockdown.

There’s a dearth in local technicians, Mr. Everhart said, noting that operating equipment at its facility requires technical engineering expertise.

Coca-Cola has been in talks with the Board of Investments to register the project. The company operates 19 manufacturing plants and more than 70 sales and distribution offices in the country. — Jenina P. Ibañez

OPM Archive looking for Filipino music artifacts


The OPM Archive Foundation has announced its official plans to collect Filipino music memorabilia and push for digital archiving in a bid to preserve cultural artifacts.

Heading the OPM Archive Foundation are Moy Ortiz, President; Krina Cayabyab, Vice-President; Dinah Remolacio, Treasurer and Chevy Salvador, Secretary.

The archive is a separate entity from Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit (OPM) in that it will serve as a foundation that collects and documents not just the actual original Filipino music, but also narratives, photographs, music sheets, and press releases.

Originally, the term “OPM” referred to the inclusive period from the 1970s to 1980s when a rich influx of new and modern sounds, melodies, lyrics, singers and musicians flooded the airwaves, and even the theater, with original dance musicals such as Rama Hari and Tales of the Manuvu. Among the familiar and popular singers who emerged, at that time were Celeste Legaspi, Basil Valdez, Hajji Alejandro, Sampaguita, Mike Hanopol, Florante, Freddie Aguilar, Leah Navarro, and Didith Reyes.

The archive, however, for the purposes of music research and study for future generations, shall extend its coverages to the precedents of this era, the 1960s, and extend to the present, and hopefully can be sustained into the future, for the identification and recognition of music development. The accompanying narratives will seek to contextualize the music in its specific social relevance that defined each period, and perhaps identify continuity to the next period.

Plans for the OPM Archive started before the COVID-19 lockdown, when the Filipinas Heritage Library (FHL), where the archive are to be housed, was ready to receive hard copy donations. With the lockdown, FHL head Suzanne Yupangco and the archive group agreed to go digital. This does not, however, preclude the collecting of hard copies once the quarantine period is over.

While each hard copy donation will be digitized, the original copies will also be preserved through actual preventive conservation, knowing how digitization alone can be prone to obsolescence because of evolving digital formats.

The archive is now open for digital collection, and is open to the public for donations. For details, visit opmarchive.com.

Pawning activities dropped in first semester

PAWNSHOPS saw a decrease in consumers tapping them for services in the first half of the year, said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno.

“We did a quick survey recently which revealed a 15% average decline between end-December and end-June. During the lockdown, most pawnshops noted a number of customers surprisingly redeemed their pledged loans,” Mr. Diokno said in an online briefing on Thursday.

Mr. Diokno said pawnshops have become more significant for financial inclusion amid the pandemic.

“I think they will continue to grow because they’ve been used in terms of distribution, for example, of welfare grants to some people because of their extensive reach and because they now provide varied services,” he said.

The industry has also applied loan restructuring for their clients and have been exploring digitization of services during the pandemic in order to adapt to the changing consumer behavior, he added.

The central bank in June increased pawnshops’ allowed percentage of total borrowings to pledge loans to 70% from 50% in a bid to boost liquidity during the crisis. The relief measure will be effective until end-2021.

Pawnshops were also included among financial institutions that needed to comply with a mandatory grace period for loan payments as provided by Bayanihan I. This grace period ended in June, although Bayanihan II which has yet to be signed into law also provides a 60-day debt moratorium.

Due to their broad networks, pawnshops are vital for financial inclusion in a country where 29% of adults remain to be unbanked.

BSP data showed the pawnshop industry had 14,416 head offices and branches across the Philippines at end-July, going beyond the combined 12,913 network of banks. These pawnshops are also present in 1,338 out of 1,634 cities and municipalities nationwide.

Mr. Diokno said the industry still mainly depends on income from their pawning operations which account for 64% of their total gross income. Meanwhile, about a third (35%) of their income are sourced from remittance activities.

Pawning services saw a 35% growth from 2014 to 2018, Mr. Diokno added. — Luz Wendy T. Noble

Century Properties seeks to refinance debt

LISTED Century Properties Group, Inc. (CPG) plans to raise funds through long-term facilities next year to refinance debt, according to a company director.

The property developer seeks to continue expanding by maintaining a healthy balance sheet, CPG Director Jose Carlo R. Antonio said at the company’s annual stockholders meeting on Thursday.

“For 2021, we are focusing on the company’s balance sheet by refinancing our short-term loans with longer tenor facilities, and hopefully at lower rates,” he told the virtual meeting.

Century Properties is also looking at operating expense savings and boost collections as it focuses more on the affordable and leasing asset segments, he added.

The company is unlikely to replicate this year growth in recent years because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Antonio said.

First-half profit fell by 36% to P458.13 million as sales declined by a fourth to P4.52 billion. Second-half figures are expected to improve as construction resumed at all CPG sites, he said.

“We will continue to diversify our portfolio toward our original goal of balanced contributions from our three business segments,” CPG President and Chief Executive Officer Jose Marco R. Antonio said at the same meeting.

These segments are affordable housing, commercial leasing and in-city vertical developments.

“Planning for future projects and new business are under way so we can seize opportunities at a much quicker pace when the market recovers,” he added.

In recent years, CPG has focused on raising revenue and income contributions from the affordable housing and commercial leasing segments to balance its asset portfolio.

“We see these two segments to contribute about a third each to our total revenue and income for the company,” CPG Chairman Jose E.B. Antonio said.

The two segments contributed P225 million in the first half, accounting for 42% of the total from just 29% a year earlier.

The company has increased its office leasing portfolio through the buyout of its joint-venture partner in Century Diamond Tower, an office building in Makati City. The deal adds 25,000 square meters of floor area to CPG’s leasing portfolio.

Later this year, CPG will start its seventh affordable housing project in Pampanga province through unit PHirst Park Homes, Inc., which will offer more than 500 house and lot units.

CPG shares gained 4.29% or 1.5 centavos to close at 36.5 centavos each on Thursday. — Denise A. Valdez

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