The 7th National Finance Congress (NFC), hosted by DLSU Management of Financial Institutions Association (MaFIA), brought delegates on a financial literacy experience last July 13 at the fourth and fifth floors of Henry Sy Sr. Hall. With the theme Expanding Boundaries: Fostering Ideas and Cultivating Financial Progression, industry professionals and analysts discussed innovations and trends in the financial industry.
A total of nine speakers from leading corporate institutions, such as Proctor & Gamble (P&G) Philippines, Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), and AXA Philippines; and fintech startups, such as Investagrams and the Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) led MaFIA’s biggest event this year.
Innovation frontiers
PDAX Financial Controller Kyle Isaac Tan Kua explained digital systems concepts and tackled fears over cryptocurrencies. Kua shared that the strength of cryptocurrencies lie in the creation of “asset-backed” tokens.
“With one gram of gold, you can actually have a digital gram of gold in your pockets. You don’t have to keep it in your house; you don’t have to keep it up in the banks. [And] if the gold price goes up, the token price also goes up because the underlying [asset] is a gram of gold,” he elaborated.
PDAX CEO and Co-founder Nichel Gaba further dissected cryptocurrency security, explaining that any transfers are confirmed by multiple sources. “The ledger is stored globally through a decentralized network of nodes. The Bitcoin protocol is so secure that you cannot make changes to the copy in one node without it being rejected by the other nodes,” he elaborated.
Gaba shared his apprehensions about Bitcoin when it first came out, saying that he initially saw it as a “scam”. Having gained a better understanding of how it works, he now championed cryptocurrencies, arguing that it reduces reliance on intermediaries, such as traditional banks, and enables ordinary people to transfer money without hefty fees.
Meanwhile, Infinit-O Manila Talent Management Officer Lawrence Co oriented participants on current developments in investment fund operations and discussed the intricacies of dealing with financial markets as an asset manager. “We [asset managers] take [investors’] present assets to ensure that they meet future liabilities,” he said.
Investagrams co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer John Michael Lapiña also discussed opportunities and trends in stock market operations. He advised the audience to exercise prudence when dealing with stocks, considering the ever-changing fortunes in the exchange. “In the market, dapat very humble ka,” Lapiña emphasized.
(In the market, you have to be very humble.)
The future of corporate finance
Christine Cuyegkeng, Chief Financial Officer of P&G Philippines, asked the audience during her keynote speech, “How do you succeed in a world that is ever-changing?” According to her, corporate finance is progressing because of the market’s evolving technology and stricter compliance environment that requires regulatory processes to be more centralized across all financial institutions.
“As finance professionals, we have to be at the forefront of these [industry developments] and stay updated with what’s happening to identify what this means for our own businesses,” she asserted.
Embedded banking, biometric identification, and robotics and automation are just some of the latest developments in corporate finance, President and Chief Executive Officer of UnionBank Edwin Bautista told the crowd, focusing his speech on how much change technology brought to the world of finance.
“We are in the 21st century. The technology has advanced so fast that we have in our fingertips the ability to deploy and elevate the level of finance in the Philippines,” he elaborated.
He presented UnionBank’s data science and artificial intelligence group, blockchain institute, and robotics group. Further, he introduced Ana, their newly-developed Android assistant, who a few weeks from now will be the one welcoming UnionBank customers when they enter branches.
However, Bautista stressed that having all of these technological developments will not give companies a competitive advantage. Instead, he argued, these developments are a necessity for financial institutions to keep up with the evolving industry.
“If you don’t have this today, you will lose the war. Twenty-first century wars cannot be won with 20th century weapons,” he stated.
