Interview

Bank of the Philippine Islands prioritised liquidity over market share last year in anticipation of a difficult environment after the unprecedented shakeout in Wall Street. But from this year onwards, Southeast Asia's oldest bank is going after consumers as well as micro and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a big way.

Perhaps a drive through Manila’s main thoroughfares would make one realize that Philippine banks have changed – quite literally, that is – what with the newly refurbished branches and fresh renditions of names and logos aimed at luring more customers.

Fiserv is making a major push into investment services in Asia with some key appointments in Singapore and a solid technology line up, says Paul Thomas, managing director for international operations of Investment Services from Fiserv. “The range of solutions that we offer that are specifically focused on an investment services company is large.

Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, CEO of CIMB Bank speaks to Bryan Camoens and Mirzan Mansoor about the bank’s strategies to circumvent the challenge of lack of information about Islamic finance.