BPI eyes more PPP projects

MANILA, Philippines - The Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) plans to participate in most of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program of the government, a ranking bank official said.

“We want to participate in most if not all (PPP). We’ll support that because most of those that participate in the program are our clients anyway. So we have to support them,” BPI executive vice president and corporate banking group head Alfonso Salcedo Jr. said.

To name a few, he said they have indicated plans to join in several PPP projects such as the Mactan-Cebu airport project, Cavite-Laguna Expressway project and MRT Extension project.

The BPI official, however, said the bank has not yet factored possible impact of these projects to its bottom-line.

“Our growth does not assume (yet the PPP). It has an upward effect but we don’t want to account that, we don’t know who’s gonna win,” he said.

BPI’s subsidiary BPI Card Finance Corp. is included in AF Consortium that recently bagged the P1.72 billion contactless Automatic Fare System Project (AFCS).

The AFCS, patterned after the mass rail transport payment systems in developed countries such as Singapore’s EZ Link Card will upgrade the ticketing system of the Light Rail Transit and Metro Rail Transit by speeding up payments, reducing queuing time and allowing seamless transfer from one rail line to another.

Salcedo said this year, they expect at least three PPP projects to be awarded by the government.