Bank of Commerce’s (BankCom) trade finance business grew more than six times in the last three years given its accelerated support to both SMEs and larger businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
BankCom, the banking arm of conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC), has 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 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.
Yearend estimates of BankCom’s trade-related contingent liabilities for 2022 are expected to reach over P19 billion average daily balance (ADB), or an increase of 637 percent over its 2019 volume of P2.7 billion.
One of its more widely-recognized trade business activities include 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.
