BIZ BUZZ: Whistle blown

The country’s hottest ad agency, which recently raised eyebrows for a politically incorrect ad that its client had to apologize for amid a public outcry, is now facing greater scrutiny not just from its own clientele but also among its peers.

The buzz is that the professional practice and ethics committee of industry association 4As Philippines has started investigating one of the male founders of this ad agency—not because of the controversial ad—but because of an allegation that surfaced afterwards that’s reminiscent of the #MeToo movement. Needless to say, the event has opened a Pandora’s box. One woman, who is also in the ad industry, took to social media to get off her chest her alleged experience as a victim of sexual harassment in 2015 during a creatives competition in Boracay. “This is what happens when you allow people to get away unchecked,” the whistleblower said, adding she wanted a sincere apology or acknowledgment. There are apparently others who have had the same experience, but have yet to make their plight public.

As such, 4As said “in light of recent events pertaining to an alleged breach of professional ethics,” its ethics committee was already “looking into the matter.” Meanwhile, the agency took down the profile of the founder in question on its corporate website on Saturday.

Many expect the association to take disciplinary action, not discounting expulsion as a possibility.

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Zooming in on banks’ performance

A cursory look at the latest financial results of the country’s top banks will show that things are improving for financial institutions after last year’s pandemic-induced carnage.

Over the past weeks, some top-tier banks already released their earnings reports for the first half of 2021, and it’s evident that several have started to pick up from last year’s performance in terms of their trading gains, the overall impact of the health crisis on credit and the government’s actions to encourage forbearance on loans that would have otherwise gone bad.

But these improvements may not be evident when viewed using a year-on-year perspective, which tend to show weaker net incomes.

For example, one of the country’s largest banks saw its net interest income slipping in the January to June period by 3 percent to P64.44 billion from last year’s P66.39 billion on the back of lower interest earnings from loans and other receivables.

But a quarter-on-quarter view will show that things are improving.

Just recently, another financial institution, namely Security Bank, posted a net profit of P3.1 billion in the first half of 2021. It is noteworthy, however, that profit before tax was P5.5 billion, which is up 20 percent from the same period last year.

But on a quarter-on-quarter basis, total revenues increased 9 percent to P9.6 billion and net interest income grew 4 percent to P6.9 billion.

Thus, industry insiders stressed to Biz Buzz that, during a time of economic recovery, the performance of financial institutions must be analyzed in shorter time periods to capture better narratives on the sector’s resilience.

Indeed, it can be observed that local banks are already shifting their focus on looking at quarterly movements to give a clearer picture of the industry performance. Is this the start of a new financial reporting trend? If it gives stakeholders a more accurate picture, why not?

—Daxim L. Lucas

Coming to Spain

The Philippines was under Spanish colonial rule for over 300 years. But now, homegrown fast-food giant Jollibee is launching an expedition to conquer Spain—or at least take a bite out of its restaurant space.

Within this year, Jollibee is set to debut in Spain, using the capital of Madrid as its springboard, as part of its plan to set up 50 stores in Europe.

This is also part of its vision of becoming one of the top five restaurant companies in the world. Right now, it’s already the biggest in Asia.

With changing customer habits brought about by the pandemic, Jollibee will also implement several changes at its Madrid restaurant, providing for outdoor seating areas, pick-up areas for takeaway food, digital kiosks for easier transactions, etc.

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla INQ

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