Gov’t wants the public to invest in financial instruments other than bank deposits

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ILOILO CITY — The government has been encouraging the people to invest in other financial instruments, aside from depositing their money in banks, to yield higher returns.

“The regulators have been going around the country, the BSP (Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas), trying to educate our people on the merits of investing in financial instruments aside from deposits,” said Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran in a press briefing here Friday.

“Deposits have very low interest rates and they are short-term money. What we want is longer-term money, which is usually invested in mutual funds, invested in equities,” Beltran said as he explained the government move to promote financial literacy.

Aside from mutual funds and other instruments, people can go to the stock market and invest, look for a company of their choice and then put their money there, he said.

“There are opportunities like this where returns are much better and it should be made known to everybody,” he added.

In the case of the Bureau of Treasury, Beltran noted that sometimes when it issues small denomination treasury bonds, finance personnel go around the country, explaining to households that it is an opportunity for them to improve their rate of return.

On the part of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commissioner Manuel Gaite said they also launch information campaigns to inform the public where to invest and where not to invest.

The SEC issues advisories to save the public from dealing with dubious investment companies, he said, adding that ordinary corporations must have a secondary license before they sell securities, so the SEC could monitor their businesses.

He warned the public that if the offer is too good, usually it is a scam.

Delegates to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum have been meeting here since Thursday to discuss infrastructural and capital market development.