BMAP President Induction Ceremony Welcome Remarks and 2010 Report
Gov. Amando Tetangco, Jr., Mr. Aurelio Montinola III, Mr. Nestor Tan, my ever supportive boss and mentor – Mr. Antonio Moncupa, Jr., our associates from the industry associations, Mr. Cesar Vitusio and Connie Justiniani of the BAP, former BMAP presidents – Gerry Diaz, Alex Escucha, Roni Tapia-Merk and Yolly Albano, friends from the press, my fellow BMAP members and of course, Mr. Danny Ocampo of BusinessWorld, the sponsor of today’s lunch, good afternoon and welcome to the first BMAP general membership meeting for 2011 and induction ceremony.
“Love is lovelier, the second time around.” so they say. I believe that some of us here may be agreeing with that statement. I could never have imagined accepting the presidency of BMAP in 2010 after having served the organization in the same capacity in 2003-2004. Nonetheless, the challenge of ensuring BMAP’s continued relevance to its members and more so to the banking industry became my tipping point.
We started off 2010 with ambitious plans and I am proud to state that we did quite well with these.
Last year, BMAP assisted in the enhancement of its members’ knowledge on the very hot topic of digital & social marketing through 2 mini-conventions. Members likewise benefited from attending general membership meetings on equally relevant subject matters of branding, advertising, customer intelligence & loyalty management and the economy. Attendance for all these sessions was overwhelming. More importantly, we believe that the participants learned a whole lot from the discussions, as evidenced by the very good evaluation ratings from the members themselves.
In 2010, we also set up the Marketing Intelligence Database, a secured section in the BMAP website which houses brand names and brief descriptions of products and services of some member banks. The objective of this site is to complement the database that banks have built through competitive scan studies conducted by their respective creative, advertising or research agencies, the purpose of which is to help us avoid adopting a product name and/or tagline that is already being used by another bank. Needless to say, this site will need continuing maintenance and regular updating.
In that same secured online site, we uploaded the Agency & Supplier Rating section, where members can now rate their agencies and suppliers. The objective of this section is to help members avoid dealing with agencies and suppliers that have rendered disservice to another member, thus empowering us in dealing and negotiating with service providers.
In the area of advocacies, while tasks proved to be very challenging for us, I must say that we made modest inroads.
After several attempts to have an industry-wide plan to bolster the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s Banking on Your Future program, we are now well on the way to launching a support program among member banks that have children as one of their target market segments and have savings affordability as key offer to this segment. Target is to launch this initiative in the first quarter of 2011.
The Service Code for Consumer Banking in the Philippines which was finished in 2004 yet launched in 2005, was reviewed by the key industry associations that spearheaded it. These associations were the Bankers Association of the Philippines, Chamber of Thrift Banks, Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines, Credit Card Association of the Philippines and of course, our very own BMAP. Inputs were received as well from the National Association of Securities Broker Salesmen, Inc. which expanded the coverage of the code to distribution of securities. The Code is currently with our Council of Advisors for a round of review prior to final presentation to the BSP and the 4 industry associations that I just mentioned. With the expansion of the Code coverage, we are mulling on renaming it Banking Code for Consumer Protection, which we plan to relaunch by the 3rd quarter of 2011 or during our 2011 National Convention.
Apart from these achievements, I am pleased to report that we were able to grow BMAP’s small coffers by nearly 100% through prudent financial management and the marked increase in members’ participation in our activities.
Let me also thank the 2010 Board members for their dedication and steadfast commitment to the goals of the Association.
Our accomplishments in 2010-, I believe, will be the foundation for the BMAP family to further grow and for the organization to be more relevant to its members and to the banking community. With that said, we hope to see an even stronger BMAP in 2011 and the years ahead.
Thank you and good afternoon.