The Trust Group of BDO Unibank has achieved the P1-trillion mark in assets under management (AUM) on the back of the strong performance of its unit investment trust fund (UITF) business.

AUM is the total market value of the securities a financial institution manages on behalf of its clients.

Rafael G. Ayuste Jr., BDO senior vice president and trust officer, said its UITF business grew by close to 35% as of end September 2020 as clients flock to the product due to its ready availability for both subscriptions and redemptions as well as the ease of access through the branches and online.

“We saw the UITF volumes increase substantially despite the pandemic. The clients see and appreciate the opportunities that the current market presents which will potentially result to significant growth in their investment returns as the market recovers,” he said.

BDO Trust offers various peso- and dollar-denominated UITFs intended to meet the diverse objectives and risk appetites of investors in terms of growing their portfolio earnings. For only P10,000, investors can already invest in any of BDO’s peso-denominated UITFs such as the Peso Money Market, Peso Bond and Equity Index Funds. For the bank’s dollar-denominated UITFs, an investor would only need US$500 to start investing in Dollar Money Market Fund, Medium Term Dollar Bond Fund or any of the Global Feeder Funds.

The bank also has the Easy Investment Plan (EIP) which doesn’t require investors to shell out a huge amount for investment. For as low as P1,000 per month, they can gradually build up their wealth to reach their financial goals. The EIP is BDO’s way to encourage Filipinos to develop the habit of investing to ensure stability of their future or even just to build an emergency fund. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is the need to be well prepared for emergencies. The EIP can also be used for the purpose of “cost averaging” through a disciplined and regular approached to investing

Investors can turn to BDO’s Invest Online Facility, an internationally recognized online platform, for easy access to the bank’s UITFs; enrollment in an automatic savings and investment program through EIP; management of the EIP details; checking of the performances of the UITF investments; and cashing in of the UITF investments booked via Invest Online.

Determined despite the crisis

Ayuste stated that majority of its clients moved their funds to the relative safety and security of money market funds given the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown to the financial market.

“This way they are able to generate positive albeit lower returns particularly during the height of the pandemic when there was so much uncertainty. We have likewise seen some long-term clients factoring in recovery and are taking the opportunity to buy more equities at current market prices which really presents great upside potential,” he noted.

Even with the prevailing health crisis, BDO continues to embark on aggressive efforts to increase its penetration of the client base, to maintain if not to further increase its market share that is currently at 25%.

“We continue to enhance our product and service delivery to ensure ease of access and simplification of client experience,” explained Ayuste.

UITFs are ready-made investments that allow the pooling of funds from different investors with similar investment objectives. These funds are managed by professional fund managers and are invested in various financial instruments such as money market securities, bonds and equities, which offer higher return than traditional bank deposit products.