MANILA, Philippines—Sun Life Financial Philippines (SLFP) has no exposure to failed investment bank Lehman Brothers, the company said in a statement.

“The majority of SLF Philippines’ life, pre-need and mutual fund assets are invested locally,” the statement said.

Its parent firm, Toronto-based Sun Life Financial Inc. on Tuesday announced that globally it holds Canadian $334 million par value of Lehman bond securities. “This represents less than 0.4 per cent of the group's invested assets,” the statement said.

Sun Life began operations in the Philippines in 1895 and currently has 1.1 million Filipino clients.

At the end of the second quarter, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of Canadian $413 billion. It reported first semester earnings of Canadian $1.05 billion.

Sun Life said that it is in a solid financial position, and maintains financial strength ratings which are among the highest of all insurers in North America.

“Sun Life has a strong balance sheet and is well capitalized beyond minimum requirements,” its statement said.

Regulators expect the damage from Lehman’s collapse to unravel in the coming months, as financial firms across the globe assess their exposure to one of Wall Street’s biggest investment banks. So far, two of the country’s biggest lenders , Banco De Oro and Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., and a medium-sized bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., have revealed hits in their investment portfolios.

The three banks have, however, set aside $120 million in provisions to prepare for possible write-downs, and maintain that their income and capital base will not be affected by their Lehman exposure.

The central bank has offered liquidity to banks who find themselves affected by Lehman, but said overall exposure of the banking industry is small at 0.3-0.4 percent of total assets.