All articles by Elena Torrijos
Elena Torrijos
Changing the way people bank
Almost half of the Philippines population, about 100 million people, do not have bank deposit accounts, but Bank of the Philippine Islands is trying to make access to financial services simply a text message away through the establishment of a mobile microfinance bank Publicly listed Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), the countrys third-largest lender, and sister firm Globe Telecom, the countrys second-largest telecommunications company, have set up a microfinance bank with a twist: it will use the mobile phone as the main delivery channel.
Pushing Premier
Elena Torrijos spoke to Diana Cesar, HSBCs head of customer proposition and segments, personal financial services, Asia-Pacific, about the groups roll-out of its Premier-branded, mass affluent product across the region Q: HSBC has managed to sign up three million people worldwide to Premier and has made it a key part of its retail banking strategy is this the case in the Asia-Pacific region as well
ANZ ups the ante in Asia
Alex Thursby, ANZs chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific, Europe and America, tells Elena Torrijos that a string of recent deals in Asia illustrate just how important the Australian bank considers the region