BankCom’s Trade Business Grew 637%

Bank of Commerce (BankCom) reported that its trade finance business grew more than six times in the last three years due to its accelerated support to both SMEs and larger businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo Insert: Boosting the bank’s capacity to deliver trade finance, especially at the height of the health crisis in 2020, BankCom was able to help sustain the operations of small-and-medium enterprises, in particular.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the bank said year-end estimates of its trade-related contingent liabilities for 2022 are expected to reach over P19 billion average daily balance (ADB), or an increase of 637% over its 2019 volume of P2.7 billion.

BankCom, the banking arm of conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC), obtained its universal banking license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2021.

“The re-opening of the economy, coupled with higher domestic consumption and improved global demand, provided a unique opportunity for BankCom’s trade business to scale up and provide well-thought-out solutions to meet the needs of both exporters and importers from within its client base,” BankCom president, Michelangelo R. Aguilar, said.

He added that, in boosting the bank’s capacity to deliver trade finance, especially at the height of the health crisis in 2020, BankCom was able to help sustain the operations of small-and-medium enterprises, in particular, helping speed up their recovery as the pandemic eases and value chains are rebuilt.

One of its more widely-recognized trade business activities includes issuances of standby letters of credit (SLBCs) to sellers of goods, on behalf of the bank’s clients, who buy the goods for their operations.

Aguilar said that the revival of activity in trade enabled the bank to generate P70 billion in issuance throughput in 2022 or more than 20 times the P3.4 billion issued in 2019 — the year its trade finance unit was established.

“The unparalleled expansion in the highly competitive area of trade mirrors the strong partnership of BankCom and SMC in supporting the operational requirements and exigencies of trade-heavy businesses,” Aguilar said.

Meanwhile, BankCom reported that its trade fee income grew by 753% from 2019 to 2022.

“A close, internal collaboration among our corporate banking, branch banking, and operations groups was essential to making this work despite the challenges the industry has faced,” Aguilar noted.

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