MANILA – Pag-IBIG Fund members collectively saved over P23.40 billion in the first half of the year, an increase of P4.94 billion or 27 percent compared to the P18.46 billion collected during the same period last year. This set a record for the highest amount saved by members with the agency for any January to June period.
“The Members’ Savings collections continue to grow at an unprecedented rate due to our members’ trust and confidence in our programs. We welcome this development because the increased savings collections allow Pag-IBIG Fund to sustain the rapid growth of home loan and short-term loan releases, allowing us to serve more members, in keeping with President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to uplift the lives of our Filipino workers,” said secretary Eduardo D. del Rosario, Chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees.
Driving the double-digit growth is the growing popularity of the agency’s Modified Pag-IBIG 2 (MP2) Savings program. MP2 Savings amounted to P4.66 billion in January to June, growing 198 percent from the P1.57 billion collected in the same period last year.
The MP2 Savings is Pag-IBIG Fund’s voluntary savings program that yields higher dividends compared to the regular Pag-IBIG Fund Savings program. The MP2 Savings program has a 5-year maturity period and a minimum savings requirement of only P500. Starting last year, the Fund opened the program to retirees and pensioners who are former Pag-IBIG Fund members.
Pag-IBIG Fund Chief Executive Officer Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti said that they have been noting the phenomenal growth of the MP2 Savings. In 2018, MP2 Savings collections by end of the year jumped 242 percent year-on-year and reached a record high of P4.47 billion.
“Our MP2 Savings Program has been growing at a phenomenal pace. In 2018, it took us a whole year to breach the P4 billion mark, which was a historic feat in itself. This year, it took only six months for MP2 Savings collections to reach P4.66 billion, surpassing the total amount collected for the entire 2018. We thank our members for their continuous support and enduring trust. We are grateful that the biggest growth areas in our savings collections come from our voluntary MP2 Savings program and from members who have upgraded their mandated monthly savings. The record-high in Members’ Savings we collected in the first half of 2019 shows the wider appreciation of our members of the benefits of saving with Pag-IBIG Fund,” CEO Moti said./PN