A TOP official of an online brokerage firm expects more Cebuanos to participate in the country’s capital markets, following the opening of its first office in Cebu yesterday.
COL Financial Group Inc. president and chief executive officer Dino Bate said their office expansion in Cebu reflects the company’s commitment to help more Filipinos build their wealth through investing.
“(The opening of our Cebu office) shows our commitment that we are really serious about educating the Filipinos to become financially independent,” said Bate, adding that their expansion in Cebu will boost their presence now that they are managing several investment products or “fund supermarket” under their platform.
COL Financial’s office in Cebu is located at Axis Entertainment Avenue along Escario St. Cebu City.
While COL has been known for utilizing the online platform to entice more Filipinos, especially the young professionals, Bate said they still need to set up a physical office to boost their visibility and jumpstart their wealth building journey.
“What we failed to realize is that visibility of the institutions is also critical to help people feel a little bit more comfortable in dealing with the organization. At the same time, you try to make it more local for them. We now have local people running our support and education campaign,” said Bate.
He added that this will help make COL’s services to its clients more personal.
COL’s office in Cebu is the fourth in the country and first in the Visayas.
It has a business center in Pasig City and a investor centers in Makati City and Davao City.
Bate said the goal of the group is to expand its presence in provincial areas and other key cities outside of Metro Manila.
COL has about 8,000 to 9,000 clients in Cebu out of the 240,000 clients recorded nationwide.
COL Financial was established in 1999 “with the vision of allowing a low-cost and easily accessible means to invest in the Philippine stock market.”
It has developed a full suite of services including real-time quotes, research services and reports, as well as expert-broker support. It also allows real-time execution of trades, considered the best practice in the local online trading industry.
Some of these services include the COL Easy Investment Program, Margin Account, research, investor seminar series and professional equity advisors.