The Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, has approved the merger of Planters Development Bank and Micro Enterprise Bank of Davao. BSP Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said the merger proposal was taken up in the MB and was approved in principle. Planters Bank has infused cash as operation capital of MEB and they plan to boost its capital to as much as P500 million. It was in 2005 when Planters Bank acquired management control of MEB from a German investor. Despite the BSP’s push for banks to tap microfinancing, most big commercial banks are ignoring the call or at best, delaying plans to extend credit for smaller borrowers. BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said there remains a "large and unmet demand for microfinance services." He added that only "commercially viable institutions are able to expand their reach to wider geographical areas and provide a more extensive range of financial services to their clients." Presently according to the BSP about 187 banks are engaged in microfinance from only 55 before 2000. These banks are reaching nearly 550,000 clients with total outstanding loan portfolio of P3.3 billion.

The National Food Authority has sufficient rice inventory in the Bicol Region particularly in Sorsogon to meet the needs of residents that might be affected should there be a major eruption of Mt. Bulusan. This assurance was made by NFA administrator Gregorio Y. Tan, Jr., stressing that the NFA in Region V has a current inventory of 824,681 bags of rice, including palay stocks. At 36,000 bags daily rice consumption, the agency can supply the regional requirement of Region V for 24 days. Since private grains traders also supply part of the rice requirement of the region, Tan noted that based on the region’s present 9,600 bags daily rice sales, the NFA rice stock in the region could last for 86 days or close to three months. The NFA in Sorsogon has an even more comfortable grains inventory level with a total rice stock of 133,679 bags. The stocks are sufficient to meet the province’s rice requirement for 29 days based on the daily consumption requirement of 4,600 bags, Tan cited. This is even higher than the country’s mandatory food security requirement which is only 15 days, he added. Even if there is sufficient grains inventory in Region V, still the NFA is beefing up the regional grains inventory level in the wake of reports that the region’s two volcanoes, Mayon and Bulusan, have been acting up as well as in preparation for the coming lean months, said Tan.

Banco de Oro Universal Bank will list on Tuesday 22.43 million shares to cover the private placement transaction of the Philippines’ seventh largest lender by assets with United Overseas Bank Philippines, the local unit of Singapore’s United Overseas Bank Ltd.. The transaction priced Banco de Oro shares at P26.75 each. Banco de Oro on Friday closed unchanged at P32.50.

Amkor Technology Philippines, one of the largest providers of advanced semi-conductor assembly and test services to more than 200 of the world’s leading semiconductor companies, needed a more reliable partner to provide helpdesk and engineering services for critical enduser support to carry out its day to day business operations. It turned to IBM to effectively increase end-user productivity, continuously improve service levels and reduce costs in the long term, banking on IBMs highly skilled pool of resources, tools, mature processes and methodology. "We need to bring our IT services to the next level of service excellence and we are excited to see how the IBM Help Desk Management Services can help us achieve this goal," said Bob Reyes, Amkor Technology Philippines Vice President Information & Communications Services. "IBM will provide Amkor access to IBM Intellectual Property and World Class Helpdesk Processes and Best Practices including Helpdesk Infrastructure and Tools to provide best-of-breed measurements, benchmarks and controls," said Aileen Judan-Jiao, IBM Global Technology Services Country Sales Executive.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said the country’s balance of payments surplus and healthy dollar reserves, as well as strong external liquidity will be sustained for the year because of macro-economic fundamentals. "The macroeconomic fundamentals remain sound. You look at the different areas and you see continuing economic growth, see further improvement in fiscal position, and see a continuation of the BoP surplus so the external liquidity continues to be very positive. (This) has allowed us to build up the reserves and (continue) with the reforms in the banking system to make the banks even more stable," Tetangco said. The country’s BoP is a surplus of $ 1.808 billion for the fifth month to May.