Launched in 2000, our Investment Advisory Group is another profit driver of the Company. This Group handles the proprietary equity portfolio of the company. Last year, the Group rode the crest of rising stock prices, realizing sizable trading gains for our proprietary fund during 2006.

This Group also provides professional investment research and advisory services to clients. It likewise creates and develops new products to serve the requirements of the market.

IAG is credited for the superior performance of the Metro Dollar Fund; a common trust fund (CTF) of the Metrobank Trust Banking Group which reached over USD 600 Million at its peak, the industry’s largest of its kind. IAG’s second winning investment is the Metro Capital Fund, an all-equity CTF of Metrobank Trust which became the industry’s top performer in 2004 and 2005. Last year, its advised equity fund, the First Metro Save & Learn Equity Fund, received the Best Performing Equity Fund Award from the Investment Company Association of the Philippines with a return of 67%. IAG attributed the success to the group’s strategic timing and selection of investment securities and to the sound direction given by the company’s Investment Committee. For the last five years, funds under the advisory of the group have amounted to P39 Billion.