BPI to open business bank solely for SMEs

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) announced Monday the creation of Business Bank, which will solely accommodate the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

This was the pronouncement made by BPI president and chief executive officer Cezar P. Consing in his visit to Cebu last Monday.

The country’s third biggest bank in asset terms, will serve fully the complex and unique needs of the SMEs, especially that the market has become too competitive.

"We are seriously looking at the SME market. We will be spending our resources in servicing [fully] the SME clients," said Consing in an interview.

The BPI Business Bank is expected to commence next year.

Although, BPI's existing corporate clients are composed of SMEs, Consing said the bank has seen a dire need to create a dedicated facility that will focus on the needs of this expanding market.

In this facility, loan sizes will be adjusted accordingly depending on a client's specific need. The SMEs loan package will be made much more attractive and bundled.

BPI, Consing added has seen the need of SMEs of bank support and there are still a huge number of small and medium business players who are yet to enjoy the banking side in terms of accessing capitalization requirement.

Traditionally, like any other player in the industry, BPI only operates generalized service directed to corporate and retail banking. Corporate banking handles the bulk products in assisting the companies.

Retail banking, also known as consumer banking, serves the typical mass-market banking in which individual customers use local branches of larger commercial banks. Services offered include savings and checking accounts, mortgages, personal loans, debit/credit cards and certificates of deposit (CDs).

Corporate banking on the other hand, is defined as custom-tailored financing and banking services for corporations. Corporate banking is typically offered by commercial banks, and entails all the services that can be extended on a financial level to corporate entities to ease day-to-day operations.

This time, BPI takes its service out of the box by introducing the Business Bank, whose services are tailored-fit to the need of SMEs.

The Ayala-owned lender reported a P11.7-billion net profit for the first semester, down 7.7 percent from the P12.6 billion tallied during the first six months of 2016.

Net revenues stood flat at P35.3 billion, with the increase in interest income offset by lower non-interest profits. —