BPI Wealth’s assets under management reach P950B as of March

THE ASSET MANAGEMENT arm of listed Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) saw its assets under management rise to P950 billion at end-March.

BPI Wealth saw a significant growth in the first quarter compared with the P875 billion managed assets as of end-2022, BPI Wealth President and Chief Executive Officer Maria Theresa D. Marcial said at a press briefing on Thursday.

She added that BPI Wealth will be rebranding its private banking segment into BPI Private Wealth within the year.

“There’s more in store because we have also integrated the private wealth relationship management into BPI Wealth, and that is to make advice and investment portfolio management more seamless as we offer many investment opportunities for our affluent and high-net-worth segment,” she said.

BPI Wealth recently lowered the minimum amount for peso-denominated investments to P1,000 from P50,000 and to $100 from $1,000 for dollar-denominated investments as part of its financial inclusion efforts.

“With these product enhancements, we should be able to see more clients open more investment accounts and make investments more accessible… This is what we call democratizing access to investments,” Ms. Marcial said.

“We have seen some interesting responses over our 6,500 investment accounts that have been opened digitally,” she added.

While the level of funding is at about 20% upon opening, over 80% of those that are engaged funded their investment accounts, Ms. Marcial said.

“All of this is really to show the market that we are really increasing our customer obsession mindset towards investment products that will cater to a whole range of customers so they can rely on a company they trust,” she added. — AMCS