The Philippines achieved its long-standing goal of attaining upper-middle-income-country (UMIC) status with a record-high gross national income (GNI) per capita in 2025, even as neighboring Vietnam made a bigger stride toward the same World Bank classification. The World Bank announced on Wednesday...
While the Philippine peso weakened amid the “more painful” impact of the United States (US)-Iran war, it has suffered smaller losses than the Indonesian rupiah and Indian rupee, not because of Manila’s closer ties with Washington but due to its lower reliance on volatile foreign capital...
Vietnam widened its lead over the Philippines in terms of gross national income (GNI) per capita as the Southeast Asian neighbors both aspire to attain the World Bank’s upper-middle-income-country (UMIC) status. A World Bank board report dated June 18 and disclosed last Monday, June 29, showed...
East West Banking Corporation (EastWest) has launched its EasyMobility for Community Program, marked by the turnover of vehicles to non-profit partners in Visayas and Mindanao. The initiative aims to strengthen education and community outreach by improving mobility for institutions that deliver...
Zobel-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is executing a major expansion of its retail footprint by leveraging a network of more than 7,000 partner storefronts nationwide, bypassing the traditional costs associated with building physical branches and deploying automated teller machines. In a...
Following the successful technical testing of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC), which demonstrated the feasibility of 24/7 interbank fund transfers, the BSP is planning to formulate a roadmap to further explore and refine the technology’s...
The Philippine government has fully spent the World Bank financing supporting its flagship Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), marking the successful completion of a nearly six-year project that modernized the country’s social protection system while providing cash assistance to millions...
To anyone watching from the outside, taking over a major family business is a smooth path. It is easy to assume that a famous last name is the only passport needed to move straight into the corner office. But for the third generation of the Gotianun family, that idea is far from the truth. They...
Banks’ success has traditionally been measured by how their balance sheets look—net income, loan quality, and dividends paid to shareholders. This is how leading financial institutions are gauged. However, for the state-run Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), the ledger is evolving. As...
Today’s young Filipinos are navigating a financial landscape that is digital-first, fast-moving, and increasingly complex. In this environment, financial products alone are not enough, what matters just as much is financial education that builds the right money mindset early on. Through...
Passing the torch in a family-run enterprise is an intricate dance of preserving legacy while allowing room for disruptive innovation; it is never just about changing signatures on corporate bylaws. In the Philippines, family-controlled empires are the bedrock of the economy, and as a generation of...
Philippine firms face mounting pressure to adapt to worsening climate risks as recurrent flooding erodes productivity, threatens jobs, and drives businesses to relocate, prompting the World Bank to call for faster investments in resilient infrastructure, energy efficiency, as well as renewable...
