26 March 2026, Makati, Philippines — The PDS Group held its 21^st Annual Awards Night, the biggest event gathering of the year with its market participants and stakeholders across different sectors of the financial market to celebrate its milestones in 2025.

The PDS market participants have indeed remained steadfast despite another challenging year. A total of 47 awards, ranging from depository, custody, and settlement to fixed income market categories, were recognized during the awards ceremony.

The celebratory evening began with a message from the PDS Group President & CEO, Ramon Monzon. In his welcome remarks, he shared the strong performance of the bond market in 2025. “Since its inception, the Secondary Market has recorded its highest Fixed Income Trading Volume of PHP 15.91 trillion, a groundbreaking 61% increase from the 2024 figure of PHP 9.89 trillion. Consistent trading volume across the whole year steered such performance, recording an average volume of PHP 1.33 trillion, with each month reaching at least PHP 1 trillion.”

Monzon also emphasized PDS Group’s relentless digitalization initiatives and projects – “We have launched last year the enhanced PDS Group website which features a cleaner and simpler user-friendly functionality for the convenience of the market.  The NoCD File Upload Portal was also launched, which is an online facility for all relevant NoCD upload submissions. This successfully removed manual efforts while maintaining the integrity of the client information contained in file submissions.”

The ceremony was graced by Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), Treasurer of the Philippines, Sharon Almanza who shared in her special message the resilience of the Philippine financial markets despite the ongoing international crisis – “The disruptions brought about this war to the sharp shift in inflation expectations and the interest rate cycle, the financial market has to navigate this environment, defined by volatilities and uncertainty. Yet through these challenges we need to demonstrate that our market can weather the storm with remarkable resilience.  Despite the setbacks, I am confident that through our collective efforts, we will be able to push forward and regain out momentum from last year.”

TOP Almanza added that BTr will continue to work with each vital stakeholders to ensure growth and development of the capital markets – “In the same spirit we continue to support the market through active engagement with stakeholders, innovative financial products and strategic initiatives to promote stability and enhance investor confidence.”

The awarding ceremonies for Depository, Settlement and Custody awards followed shortly after TOP Almanza’s speech. The Corporate Securities Awardees were also recognized.

The highlight of the evening was the awarding of the PDS Annual Awards’ highest honor – the Cesar E.A. Virata Award – Best Securities House for Bank Category. This year’s Cesar E.A. Virata Award was presented to Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company (Metrobank).

Metrobank’s EVP, Deputy Head of Financial Markets Sector, Angelica Reyes shared the significance of receiving the night’s major award – “This recognition is particularly meaningful, because it comes at a time of extraordinary market turbulence, when our resolve is to keep functioning in an orderly and responsible manner is tested. We therefore receive this award with reiteration of our commitment to our regulators, this organization, our fellow market participants and the investors.”

See full list of the 2025 PDS Top Performers