oct 30
Tagum City bankers interviewed by the press yesterday said they “could not yet sense or feel” that the effects of the global financial crisis that is affecting intensely the United States are already reaching the city.
A branch manager of a nationwide bank, who requested anonymity, said that at present his bank has not yet experienced decrease in their accounts on foreign remittances and foreign currency deposits.
He said that his bank has largely the same trend on their foreign accounts since the recent months when the global financial crisis hit the headlines, even if they are catering only a “not so significant volume of dollar remittances” from the United States.
“Still we are experiencing the same trend,” he said.
He said though that when the news on the global financial meltdown have been nagging the headlines recently, several depositors in Tagum City had made phone calls to his bank to inquire and verify.
But he said that even the few banks in Manila that have been reported to have investment exposures to collapsed banks and financial companies in the US can only be likened to have been “wounded” adding that the affected banks are not bound for closure considering the provision on retaining cash liquidity.
On the other hand, LandBank-Tagum assistant manager Eunice Sumatra in an interview with Sidlak said that “they are business as usual”.
She added that the Landbank is unperturbed by the global financial crisis knowing that they financially cater to government offices and government workers.
“Dili pa gyud ma-feel nang international financial crisis namo,” she said.
An internal corporate circular obtained by Sidlak from another local bank official who also refused to be named, advises local clients not to panic, saying that Philippine banks remain strong, their exposure to the credit crisis is minimal and small, relative to their or entire Philippine banking system capital base”.
It also said that the country “has lessened dependence on the US economy on account of its strong consumer-led economy and the increasing prominence of other countries and regions that it trades with- such as China, India, Japan, Europe and other ASEAN countries.”
“The Philippines also can count on the continued strong inflows of remittances from its OFWs (projected to top last year’s $18 billion), most of whom are in oil-rich Middle East nations whose economies remain buoyant due to high oil prices,” the internal corporate circular said. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News) http://ruralurbanews.blogspot.com
Filed under: eunice sumatra, landbank-tagum, landban-tagum eunice sumatra, tagum banks
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