Any update on College Assurance Plan (CAP)?
September 29, 2008
What’s the latest on CAP or College Assurance Plan, the failed pre-need firm that left millions of Filipino pension and educational plan holders with nothing when it went down several years ago?
That’s what a few PMT members want to know in the discussion thread CAP Insurance, any experience?
Member foolcha said that CAP Pension is still liquid with enough assets in cash while the CAP Educational Plan has assets but are mostly illiquid, which means they cannot be easily converted to cash. Both CAP Pension and CAP Educational Plan are being managed by a trustee under the supervision of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Prudentialife cuts interest rate of Pension Plan products
September 28, 2008
PMT member shobe recently disclosed that Philippine pre-need firm Prudentialife is lowering the interest rate it is offering to its Pension Plan products.
In the discussion thread Prudentialife Pension Plan to cut pension interest rate from 12% p.a. to 6% p.a., shobe shared that her mother received a letter from Prudentialife saying the interest rate applied to monthly pension benefits will be cut by half.
The pension plan product used to offer 12% interest per annum but starting October 1, the new adjusted rate is 6% per annum.
Excerpt of the Prudentialife letter below.
Subprime 101 - Simple but funny Powerpoint on US subprime
September 25, 2008
With all the buzz going on about the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the $700 billion bailout plan, and the US financial crisis and its impact on Philippine banks, the word “subprime” suddenly gained notoriety in mainstream media.
What exactly is this subprime mortgage problem?
We already discussed this concept more than a year ago (See The US Subprime Mortgage Problem - explained in simple terms), but for those looking for a simpler explanation, you’re in luck.
Here’s a Powerpoint presentation that humorously but accurately explain “subprime.”
Why AIG was bailed out but not Lehman Brothers
September 23, 2008
There is a theory in finance and economics called the “Big Bank Theory” which asserts that governments — through the Central Bank or the Federal Reserve (in the case of the US) — will not allow a “big bank” to collapse because the economic impact of such occurrence will surely be great.
That was exactly the rationale behind last week’s bailout of the American International Group (AIG) by the US Federal Reserve (Fed).
Asia Century responds to PMT review
September 21, 2008
Our review of the Philippine-based online advertising network Asia Century elicited a response from the chief himself of this money-making program.
The email sent to us reads:
Should we panic? BDO, Metrobank, RCBC hit by Lehman collapse
September 17, 2008
At least three Philippine banks face possible loss of investments due to their exposure to bankrupt global financial services firm Lehman Brothers.
As Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early this week, local banks Banco de Oro (BDO), Metrobank, and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) announced they have set aside provisions for possible write-downs ranging from P658 million ($14 million) to P3.8 billion ($80.7 million).
Surely the question right now on depositors’ minds: Is there a reason to panic?
Fall of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch signals bigger financial crisis
September 15, 2008
It’s a sad — and scary — day for financial markets today.
Lehman Brothers, a global financial services firm operating for more than 158 years, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after attempts to rescue it failed. The company went down with total debt amounting to $613 billion and losses amounting to $60 billion brought by subprime mortgage investments. More than 26,000 employees are expected to go unemployed.
And yet months ago, we thought the financial meltdown has already reached its peak when tens and thousands of employees in Citigroup, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and Siemens, among others, were laid off.
Philippine Blog Awards 2008 to honor best Filipino blogs
September 15, 2008
Now on its second year, the Philippine Blog Awards (PBA) seeks to honor Filipino blogs that stand out among the millions of Pinoy blogs now populating the blogosphere.
Last month, we wrote about how you can nominate your favorite blog. Now the time has come to actually recognize the bloggers behind the best and most popular Pinoy blogs. The Awards Night of the 2008 PBA is slated on September 21, Sunday, 6 p.m. at One Esplanade located at Seaside cor. Bay Boulevard in Pasay City.
Win $20,000 in ASEAN songwriting contest
September 12, 2008
Attention budding composers and song writers! Here’s your chance to make a global impact while enjoying, at the same time, cash amounting to $20,000 or around Php 900,000.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN is conducting a region-wide competition to select a composition as the ASEAN anthem for the 14th ASEAN Summit to be held on December 2008 in Thailand.
Drowning in credit card debt?
September 11, 2008
A P30,000 (US$652) credit card debt that ballooned to almost P1 million (US$21,740)? Crazy, isn’t it?
Apparently not for the debt collection agency pestering PMT member cheesycake who shared that a legal office sent her a letter demanding that she pay almost a million pesos for a P30,000 credit card debt she incurred four years ago.
At that rate, cheesycake is being asked to shoulder a compounded, monthly interest rate of around 7.50%! That’s being compounded every month! To think that banks right now offer only 0.50% to 1.00% interest rate per year!
