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Category Archive 'banking'
25.08.08

Human errors in banks’ negative lists

- banking, credit cards -

Picture this. Assigned bank officers from 38 universal and commercial banks enter names of erring borrowers into their negative lists, send these files to the Bankers Association of the Philippines on a regular basis via file transfer protocol, and the BAP sends the file back to the banks so they can use the database for deciding whose credit application to approve or to junk.

Frightening? What really goes on after these files are modified? Too many points for human errors and no way yet for individual borrowers to conveniently check whether they have hits on their names and whether the hits are justified. That’s why everybody’s waiting for the credit bureau, where transparency will make it possible for people to check their credit score.

I got this email from a reader who is concerned about a hit on his name and interviewed Topper Coronel, executive director of the BAP, to clear things up. The email sender’s name has been changed upon his request.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

14.07.08

Filipinos owe P202.3B in consumer loans

- banking, credit cards, debt -

If you’re mired in runaway consumer debt and don’t know how to pick yourself up, here’s something that should give some measure of comfort: you’re not alone.

There are more than five million credit cards out there with P116 billion charged to them based on end-December 2007 figures from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippine central bank, and P16.5 billion have fallen past due.

Assuming Filipinos are an android population with identical spending habits, we have an average of P23,219.60 charged to our credit cards. Are you below, or higher than the average?

[Read the rest of this entry »]

11.07.08

Can hackers peek into your bank accounts?

- Smart Habits, So What Chocnut?, banking, spending habits -

(Photo from Agence France-Presse)

The other day, I felt like crawling inside a cave and hiding for the rest of my life. Oh, for at least 10 minutes.

This news story that originated in San Francisco in the US the other day that said a basic flaw in the Internet could allow hackers to take over the web triggered all sorts of warning signals in my brain.

Major software and hardware makers worked in secret for months to create a software “patch” released on Tuesday to repair the problem, which is in the way computers are routed to web page addresses.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

06.05.08

Your Landbank LTNCD questions answered

- Investing, Saving money, banking -

With ten short days to go before Landbank of the Philippines ends the offering period for its long-term negotiable certificates of deposit, confused overseas Filipino workers are still at a loss on how to access the offering.

At the heart of the problem are Landbank’s feeble presence overseas and a ticklish issue on documentary requirements. You will find many examples of those concerns from MoneySmart readers in my previous posts on the LTNCDs here and here.

Joey Sale, a senior analyst at Landbank, said the bank has held meetings on these issues Monday afternoon, conscious of the difficulties the OFWs are facing.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

29.04.08

Gov’t bank targets OFWs with high-yield deposit product

- Financial Planning, Investing, OFW, Saving money, banking, retirement -

money

State-owned Landbank of the Philippines’s sweet deal for OFWs launched yesterday is described in this article.

An annual interest of 7.0% and a maturity of 5.5 years is not bad for anyone’s portfolio. Experts always tout diversification and to do that properly, the risky part should not overshadow the secure and boring part. How to cut the cake exactly depends on personal risk appetites, of course.

It is a fact of life that stocks are sexy and deposits and bonds are boring. ☺ Most of the times, boring is good.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

25.03.08

Faulty ATMs and customer service

- banking -

mangled bill

It was an ordinary Saturday for me last March 22, except for the mangled P500 bill I took out of the BDO automated teller machine. Nope, it definitely doesn’t look like something the girl at SM would take from a customer. After a dismayed sigh, I shrugged it off. A few moments after, I was already contemplating my wet market list and forgot about it.

This morning, I saw the mangled bill again. I must admit I was tempted to forget about it but I could smell a MoneySmart moment, so off I went to the BDO branch near the ATM machine to ask if they can replace the bill.

“I have a sort of weird request,” I told the lady in blue behind a desk. “This is one of the bills I got out of the ATM machine near this branch…” I let my voice trail into a sweet silence.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

12.03.08

Quick forex tips for OFWs

- OFW, banking, family finance, forex -

peso nov 2003

(Good old days for the dollar! This was taken November 27, 2003. File photo from Agence France-Presse)

For the longest time, the dollar has been the darling currency of the world. In an earlier post, I asked if it was a doomed currency, but as a good friend pointed out, if it is really the end of the road for the greenback, why do its hiccups still affect world markets?

More and more, however, other currencies are starting to shine. So here’s a quick tip for overseas Filipino workers struggling with the weakening dollar: get paid in the local currency.

Of course, this will only work if you are not working or living in the United States. (Duh). Several of my friends, for example, work for Canadian companies. Instead of getting paid in the US dollar, which was the currency of choice for the longest time, they decided to get paid in the Canadian dollar. It proved to be a good plan as the US dollar slid continuously the whole year.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

04.03.08

Special deposit accounts as alternative to time deposits

- Saving money, banking -

bank peso

Banks are marketing special deposit account products more aggressively these days. With the low returns from time deposits and fixed-income instruments, people are looking for more alternatives and I actually witnessed this in a bank branch the other day.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Doris Dumlao reports today that as of February 8, SDAs have sucked in P546 billion of the money in the banking system. Read her article here.

Here are some useful figures to remember from this article:

[Read the rest of this entry »]

28.02.08

GUEST POST: Financial Planning FAQ

- Financial Planning, Guest Posts, Investing, Pre-Need, Saving money, banking, stock market -

stocks 2 traders

BY MALAYA LARAYA

I recently conducted a half-day seminar on financial planning for some professionals and it was a rather enlightening experience on the mindsets of people when it comes to financial planning. As always there was an open forum at the end and quite a number of questions were asked – some were the usual and some were rather unusual. So for those of you who may have had some of these questions in mind but didn’t know who or what to ask; here is a small FAQ on financial planning.

What is the best investment? This is definitely the most common question that has been asked and the short answer is this : There is none. More specifically, there is simply no investment tool that is the best for all people all of the time. There are instead, instruments that are best suited to each individual’s particular needs, plans and current financial condition. Simply put, what is good for your friend, spouse, relative, lover, workmate, neighbour or child may not necessarily be good for you due to the undeniable fact that you and your friend, spouse, relative, lover, workmate, neighbor or child are two different individuals. Consequently, the two of you will have different sets of wants and needs at different times and will therefore need different solutions. Therefore, be very wary of anyone who tries to sell you a panacea for all of your investment needs as it simply does not yet exist.

Where can I get information about (x)? Despite the fact that we are very much in the online age, very many people still do not know where to get even the most basic information about financial products. From equities to managed funds to pre-need plans; people seem to be at a loss as to where to go. Here are some websites that you can visit as well as what you can expect to read.
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13.02.08

What interest on deposits?

- Investing, Saving money, banking, retirement -

big lizards

(Sleeping lizards don’t go anywhere, but they don’t grow too. So like putting all of one’s savings in low interest-bearing savings deposits. File photo from Agence France Presse)

I picked up several things from Noet Ravalo’s column today:

For those that still offer some interest, the lowest that I have seen is a rate of about one-tenth of one percent and this is still taxable at 20 percent withholding tax. At this rate, your monthly return for an outstanding balance of P50,000 comes out roughly to about P3.33 — an amount small enough to miss out among your transactions but big enough to be a nuisance if you try to balance your books before you get your printed statements. The other way of looking at this interest rate is that you have to set aside and keep untouched a balance of P400,000 in your account so that your net interest affords you a small-sized serving of French fries from a popular burger franchise every month.

I would tell the bank to shove the French fries up his nose (no funny words here please), but that’s just me. The owners of more than P3 trillion of deposits out there are still parking all of their money in bank deposits.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

Welcome to
Money Smarts, where people can talk freely about personal finance, business, financial independence, the economy and my personal favorite, giving the rat race a kick on the butt. INQUIRER.net business editor Salve Duplito has the floor, but you can freely ask questions and take the mic.
Disclaimer: Readers are solely responsible for their investment decisions; conduct proper due diligence and obtain professional advice. Money Smarts will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a reader's reliance on information obtained from this blog. Money Smarts receives no compensation of any kind from any company or individual mentioned.
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