Philippine UITFs

According to uitf.com.ph "A UITF is an open-ended pooled trust fund...which is operated and administered by a trust entity...".

Roughly that means the trust entity (the bank) pools the investors' funds, with investors being able to invest or redeem their investments at any time. Investors purchase units of the fund at a price called the NAVPU (Net Asset Value Per Unit).

These are not bank deposits and are not insured by the PDIC (Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation). Their earning potential is substantially higher than that of bank deposits but carry a higher degree of risk.

There are four general types of UITFs:

Money Market Funds - invest primarily in short-term fixed-income securities
Bond Funds - invest in medium and long-term fixed-income securities
Balanced Funds - invest in a mix of equities, bonds, and fixed-income securities
Equity Funds - invest primarily in equities

The Trust Officers Association of the Philippines website provides a wealth of information on UITFs.
They have a UITF FAQ,
a useful calculator,
a very useful table of the different UITF institutions, fund types, minimum investment amounts, holding periods, and fees.
and a Risk Disclosure document, among other things. The only thing I don't like about the website is the ugly colors on some of the pages. Overall however it's very useful and informative.

Government Oversight
UITFs are regulated by the BSP.
Mutual funds are regulated by the SEC.

Fees and Sales Loads
UITFs do not have front-end charges. UITF early redemption fees are also usually lower than mutual fund back-end sales loads. Many UITFs also charge lower annual fees than most mutual funds.

Fund Types
UITF and mutual fund types are virtually identical.

Risk
Since the fund types are identical the risks are too.

Minimum Investment Amount
Minimum investment amounts are higher for UITFs. Unlike mutual funds, subsequent investments are treated as new investments, therefore the minimum amount stays the same.

Holding Period
UITF holding periods range from 0 to 365 days. Redemptions made before the end of the holding period are subject to early redemption fees (mentioned above).
Mutual funds with front-end sales loads usually have no holding periods. Mutual fund holding periods, if any, range from one to five years.

Partial Redemption
Partial redemptions of UITF investments are not allowed. Mutual fund investments may be partially redeemed.

Website
The UITF website has more useful information and works with more browsers. The mutual fund website has better colors.

• Allied Bank


• Asiatrust Bank


• Bank of Commerce


• Bank of the Philippine Islands


• BDO Unibank, Inc.


• China Banking Corporation


• EastWest Banking Corporation


• LandBank of the Philippines


• Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.


• Philippine Bank of Communications


• Philippine National Bank


• RCBC


• RCBC Savings Bank


• Security Bank


• UnionBank