FAMI, MCN mutual fund product for cooperatives

Consistent with the principles of cooperativism, the SALFOCCUS Dynamic Fund aims to improve the quality of life of our members through financial inclusion and wealth creation.

Asset management firm First Metro Asset Management Inc. (FAMI) teamed up with Davao City-based Model Cooperative Network (MCN) to launch a mutual fund designed for the niche market of cooperatives.

FAMI, the fund management unit of Metrobank Group’s First Metro Investment Corp., said the First Metro Save & Learn F.O.C.C.U.S (SALFOCCUS) will initially only be offered as an additional financial product to cooperative members under MCN, but will soon be made available to non-MCN members.

“Consistent with the principles of cooperativism, the SALFOCCUS Dynamic Fund aims to improve the quality of life of our members through financial inclusion and wealth creation. Through our partnership with FAMI, we’re able to bring the benefits of investing with the help of a professional fund manager to our individual members,” MCN chief executive officer Rhoda Ruth Pillerin said.

“The experience of many successful cooperatives in the Philippines has shown us that even the economically-challenged segment of our population can build their savings and investments portfolio. With SALFOCCUS Dynamic Fund, we’re giving them the opportunity to transition from investors in their respective cooperative’s business to investors in the mainstream capital markets as well,” Pillerin added.

MCN serves as a national federation of cooperatives with savings and credit operations, and is a recipient of the Finance Organizations Achieving Certified Credit Union Standard accreditation.

FAMI, on the other hand, is a partnership between First Metro, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines and the Marist Brothers Foundation.

It currently manages the country’s first and only exchange-traded fund, as well as the First Metro Philippine Equity Exchange-Traded Fund and the First Metro Consumer Fund.