BDO wins at Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards
BDO Unibank Inc. received the Bronze Award in the First Time Reporter category at the prestigious 5th Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards (ASRA)–the only awarded Philippine bank this year.
The First Time Reporter award is given to inaugural and well-rounded sustainability reports that demonstrate the company’s long-term approach to integrating sustainability practice into its business operations.
Winning entries in the category are judged on “strategic approach to sustainability, meaningful and relevant leadership opening statement, coverage of all significant sustainability impacts of the business, approach to stakeholder engagement, and clear presentation of multi-year sustainability performance results.”
BDO’s Sustainability Report, released last year, outlines the bank’s economic, environmental, social, and governance performance in 2018. It shows how BDO stays true to its sustainability philosophy to achieve resilience by incorporating sustainability in the way it does business and to embed sustainability principles in its decision-making, relationship assessment, and product development processes.
Prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, the report also details how the financial institution does its part in being a positive force for progress, opportunity, and sustainability in the communities it serves.
“Banking and financial services play a critical role in helping drive sustainable development. Our ability to provide financial access to the majority of the population is vital in creating a more equitable society. By leveraging on our resources, we strive to be the country’s partner for social progress,” says Nestor Tan, president and chief executive officer of BDO.
The non-profit ASRA is organized annually by Singapore-based CSRWorks International.
Besides BDO, three other Philippine companies were honored at the ASRA, including SM Investments Corp., which received a Bronze Award in the Asia’s Best Sustainability Report (Digital) category.
“We have a strong commitment to sustainability. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards and practices are at the core of how we run our business because they are aligned with our ‘We Find Ways’ service philosophy. These principles remain our cornerstone as we continue to evolve to serve the needs of our clients and contribute to social progress,” said Teresita Sy Coson, chairperson of BDO.
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Alsons donates food to returning residents
The Alsons Power Group’s Sindangan Zambo-River Power Corp. (SZPC) provided essential food items to more than 70 returning residents of the municipality of Siayan, Zamboanga del Norte who had until recently been stranded in Metro Manila and other parts of the country. SZPC is developing a 22 mega-watt (MW) hydro power project along the Sindangan River, divided into a 15 MW run of river hydroelectric power plant in the Municipality of Siayan and another 7 MW plant in the Municipality of Dumingag.
The project is expected to begin construction in 2021 and begin operations in 2023. Siayan Municipal Mayor Joesecor S. Gepolongca (7th from the right) received the goods consisting of 100 25-kg. sacks of rice, around 2000 assorted canned goods, and other food items from SZPC employees led by Community Relations head Llewellyn Lisondra (7th from the left).
Alsons Power- Mindanao’s first private sector power generator plans to develop at least seven more run of river hydro power facilities in different parts of Mindanao and Negros Occidental. The group currently operates four power facilities in Mindanao with a total generating capacity of 468 MW serving over eight million people in 14 cities and 11 provinces.
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City Savings gears up for telco credit scoring
City Savings Bank has sealed a partnership with FinScore as one of their technology partners for credit scoring and fraud flagging.
With the partnership, FinScore will provide credit scoring for City Savings Banks’ motorcycle loan applicants. The bespoke model is based on over 400 telco variables such as data and voice usage, top-up patterns, location, and device data.
FinScore will also provide fraud detection tools that will allow City Savings Bank to verify details such as the authenticity of the applicant’s declared residential and place of work addresses. The program uses API integration to make real-time inquiries that will help to determine the creditworthiness of applicants.
With FinScore’s highly predictive machine learning technology, CitySavings is now geared up to open more opportunities to approve loans for both banked and underbanked applicants.
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YouTube reaches more than 40M adult viewers
YouTube announced that more than 40 million unique viewers in the Philippines are watching on YouTube every month over the past year.
This was bared at the Brandcast Delivered annual event for brands last week.
YouTube said watch time across content genres and the number of channels with more than 100,000 subscribers continue to grow, bringing opportunities to creators and businesses in the country.
YouTube said more than 50 percent of the 40 million unique local viewers are aged 18 to 34 years old. Watch time grew by over 50 percent where Filipinos used the platform to fuel their passion points and expand their knowledge to cope with the extended periods of the quarantine. Watch time logged for gardening contents grew by more than 4x, while that for art videos doubled. Time spent watching strategy game videos and fitness contents grew by more than thrice respectively. Meanwhile, watch time for knowledge videos saw more than 90 percent increase.
“YouTube continues to bring opportunities for creators and local businesses in the Philippines,” said Bernadette Nacario, Google Philippines country director. “As watch time and audiences on YouTube grow, creators can expand their reach and diversify their content storytelling. Over the last few years, we’ve also launched a number of products such as YouTube Video Builder to help MSMEs, which form the majority of our economy, leverage the power of YouTube as part of their digital strategy. Any small business can use YouTube as long as they have a clear objective, a creative idea, and a target audience to engage.”
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Colliers appoints new head of Capital Markets & Investment Services
Colliers International announced the appointment of Calvin Javiniar as the new senior director for Capital Markets & Investment Services for its Philippine operations.
Based in Manila, Javiniar brings strong relationships and industry expertise to Colliers. He has been active in the Philippine real estate sector for over 15 years and his extensive experience in the market includes property advisory and investment management, asset management, brokerage and marketing. He has represented clients in various types of big-ticket real estate transactions and advisory projects with a cumulative transaction value of more than P10 billion over the course of his career.
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StaySafe.ph enhanced
StaySafe.ph now has an advanced QR code scanning and digital logbook features that can be utilized by various establishments and companies for their respective health check to help them protect and keep their employees, customers and visitors safe.
StaySafe generates a unique QR code for each establishment, such as malls, restaurants, corporate buildings, transport facilities and checkpoints, which guests may scan for health checks and contact tracing.
StaySafe also has a digital logbook that is contactless and paperless to eliminate the manual health check forms being accomplished by visitors in an establishment.
This supports the Department of Trade and Industry’s customer health check in malls and restaurants, as well as the Department of Labor and Employment’s visitor health checklist in offices and workplaces.
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Nissan PH donation for RITM frontliners
Nissan in the Philippines in its commitment to enrich Filipino lives, has donated 1,100 meals to medical frontliners at the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Members of the Nissan Urvan Pilipinas, a club of owners of the popular van, supported the Japanese automotive brand’s outreach activity by helping deliver the meals to the medical facility. The meals were distributed to RITM staff, doctors, nurses, and medical technicians who handle the COVID-19 testing.
“Nissan’s vision of enriching people’s lives is a commitment to our customers and our communities. We aim to contribute in the fight against the pandemic in every way we can, from ensuring the health of our people and customers in our workplaces, to supporting our medical frontliners through this donation,” said Atsushi Najima, President and Managing Director of Nissan in the Philippines.
Nissan in the Philippines donated and distributed meals to medical frontliners at various medical centers in Metro Manila last June. Along with similar efforts from Nissan dealerships around the country, these previous outreach activities were shown in a tribute video honoring the dedication and sacrifices of the frontliners, which was posted in Nissan Philippines social media accounts. The tribute video also features the song “Hibla ng Alaala” written by Nissan in the Philippines General Manager for Sales Rolando Navarro.
Nissan Philippines, Inc. (NPI) is the sole national sales company of Nissan in the Philippines. Since it began operations in 2014, NPI has become one of the fastest growing automotive companies in the Philippines, closing Fiscal Year 2018 with a 58% growth versus the previous Fiscal Year.
NPI is committed to delivering Innovation that Excites to the Philippines market, through the introduction of new and exciting vehicles, innovative customer programs, and excellent customer service.
