BPO workers to fortify investor base

By Katlene O. Cacho

Thursday, March 22, 2012

THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is reaching out to the business process outsourcing (BPO) workers to draw in more retail investors in the stock market.

PSE president Hans Sicat said tapping the growing techno-savvy BPO workers has been one of the goals of the PSE’s market-education team.

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Sicat said they are targeting the BPO workers to grow the stock market’s retail investor base because they have bigger disposable incomes, which they can use to invest. Also, most BPO employees have their own savings and checking accounts and are familiar with technology.

“Retail penetration is low and we are trying to address that. One of the efforts in increasing participation is to tap the BPO workers,” Sicat said at the sidelines of the recent Economic and Investor Confidence Forum held here.

PSE’s current retail base is estimated from 550,000 to 600,000 investors.

PSE recently opened its Cebu satellite office to strengthen its presence in some key cities outside Manila.

Curriculum

Apart from this, the PSE has also launched various projects meant to give the stock market a lift.

Sicat, in his presentation said, they are helping the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) in designing a curriculum for the high school level, which would give students a glimpse of how the stock market works. The stock market also launched the PSE Academy Website, where people can learn about the stock market.

Some other initiatives also include the launching of the PSE’s own online trading platform, dubbed Online Service Bureau (OSB) in the second semester this year targeting tech-savvy retail investors.

Innovation

Sicat explained that the OSB will capitalize on the continuous growth of online transactions by allowing investors to place their orders to brokers online. The move is also an innovation from the usual modes of stock trading, which are done through phone calls or physical interaction.

“This is an active year for the stock market. We are expecting a lot of exciting opportunities for the country in general,” Sicat said.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on March 23, 2012.