Bank of the Philippine Islands or BPI expects more clients for sophisticated investment products amid the growing number of GCash users.
BPI Wealth, the asset management group of BPI, said it aims to double the number of its retail investors from 600,000 to 1.2 million.
“A big part of BPI Wealth’s retail segment comes from the GInvest platform by GCash. Our target for the retail investors will be more aggressive,” BPI Wealth president and chief executive officer Maria Theresa Marcial said.
Tap big markets
BPI and GCash, both owned by the Ayalas, are able to tap big markets ranging from the ultra-rich to middle to lower income earners. Retail customers own less than $1 million in assets.
GInvest by GCash allows a P50 minimum capital investment for various funds, such as Philippine equity fund, technology fund, and fixed-income fund.
“I think, on the average, the investment of GCash users is P8,000. It’s a good start because we also want our broader segment to invest,” Marcial said.
Meanwhile, BPI Wealth now offers a lower minimum capital requirement for unit investment trust funds or UITFs at P1,000 from P10,000.
Marcial said BPI Wealth can also attract a portion of the 10.9 million retail customers of the entire BPI group, which has a total of 11 million customers.
60 million GCash users
Meanwhile, GCash users climbed to over 60 million or around 83 percent of the country’s adult population last year, according to global market researcher Statista.
BPI Wealth offers diverse and customized investment portfolios and family-wealth protection.
As of end-December 2023, BPI Wealth grew its assets under management to P1.22 trillion. It aims to increase this to P3 trillion.