Thursday, May 17, 2007 Financial firm to locate in Cebu
AN international financial company based in the United States is expanding its operations and has chosen to locate in Cebu this year.
Joel Mari Yu, Cebu Investment Promotions Center managing director, announced the entry of Washington Mutual Inc. (WaMu), one of US’ leading retailers of financial services catering to consumers and small business banks.
He said WaMu will be among the locators of a 12-story building that will be constructed in the Asiatown IT Park (AITP).
The company will need some 1,500 employees, consisting of information technology-skilled professionals as well as commerce and accounting graduates, who will run its back office operations.
According to its website, WaMu handles retail banking and financial services, home loans, card services and commercial groups, including multi-family lending, commercial real estate, community lending and investment and mortgage banker finance.
As of March this year, the company and its subsidiaries reported assets of $319.99 billion.
Established in 1889, it now operates 2,600 distribution outlets and 3,700 automated teller machines across the US.
Largest
WaMu was also awarded as Fortune 500’s top 99 among the US’ largest corporations, based on annual revenues.
Earlier, Yu also said other global business process out-sourcing (BPO) companies that have shown interest in Cebu are Fluor Corp., Accenture and IBM’s out-sourcing firm IBS Philippines. The companies will generate around 3,000 jobs.
US-based Fluor Corp., which he described to be “the world’s largest construction company,” will need about 500 to 700 software engineers, among others.
Fluor Corp. is considering opening its Cebu branch either at the Cebu Business Park (CBP) or at the AITP, Yu said.
The Cebu office is an expansion of its Luzon operations in Muntinlupa, where it operates with over 1,500 people.
Outsourcing
On the other hand, Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, will be operating a 700-seat facility at the CBP.
The firm is set to occupy six floors of a high-rise building that is under construction in the area.
In addition, computer technology giant IBM is planning to open a 1,500-seat outsourcing facility in Cebu, through IBM’s transformation out-sourcing operations in the Philippines, the IBS (IBM Business Services), Yu said.
Yu said the entry of more BPO firms in Cebu only strengthens the province’s position as the next information technology hub in Asia. (MMM)
