MANILA -- An online stock and mutual fund platform is encouraging more Filipinos to invest their hard-earned money in stocks, and play a key role in the growth of the country’s capital markets.
Dino Bate, President and Chief Executive Officer of COL Financial Group Inc., attributed the weakening stock market to global trends where liquidity used to lift markets were slowly withdrawn, noting it’s an irrational movement of money.
“For this year’s investors, this is a chance to be able to buy stocks at a much lower level and we know all these will pass and eventually the real values will again emerge. This is a chance to make high returns when markets are at this period,” he said in an interview last week.
“I think 2018 will be challenging. It has nothing to do with the state of the nation. I think the country is doing very well, there is no problem with earnings,” he said.
Bate noted his group is continuously educating Filipino retail investors about pouring in their money into the stock market.
Bate said he thus expects that Filipino retail investors will have equal participation with foreign investors in the stock market in three to five years, as they educate more Filipinos to invest in the capital market.
“So the retail investors being minority investors in the country will slowly be of the past, and they will now be a dominant force in the growth of the capital markets,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bate said the Group is looking at introducing to the market new investment products and establish more investor centers this year.
“It’s an investment product that our clients can use as part of their investment portfolio. What we are trying to do here is always to find ways for clients to have access to these products that they can generate income from it,” he said.
As of end-2017, COL had 249,000 accounts, indicating a 21-percent growth from 205,000 the previous year.
COL was able to achieve this growth due to the steady stream of referrals from existing clients, as well as through the establishment of new investor centers outside Metro Manila, namely in Davao, Cebu and Ilocos.
Bate said they aim to establish two more investor centers in Metro Manila, and one in the province in 2018. (PNA)
