Is an oral sale of land really unenforceable?

In the Philippines, the enforceability of an oral sale of land depends on the circumstances. Let’s explore this further:

• Unenforceability Under the Statute of Frauds:

• Generally, an oral sale of real property is not considered void, but it is unenforceable under the Statute of Frauds. This means that while the oral agreement itself may not be legally binding, it can still have some legal effects.

• The Statute of Frauds requires certain contracts, including real estate transactions, to be in writing to be enforceable. However, there are exceptions.

• Partially or Completely Executed Contracts:

• If the oral sale has been partially or completely executed, it may still be enforceable. In other words, if the parties have already taken significant steps (such as possession, payment, or other acts) based on the oral agreement, it can be upheld.

• The Statute of Frauds is not applicable in cases where the verbal sale has been executed, meaning that the parties have fulfilled their obligations under the agreement.

• Legal Effects Between the Parties:

• Even without a written contract, an oral sale of real estate can still produce legal effects between the parties.

• Courts recognize that practical considerations and actions taken by the parties can validate an oral agreement, especially when it has been acted upon.

In summary, while an oral sale of land is generally unenforceable under the Statute of Frauds, its validity depends on the specific circumstances and whether it has been partially or completely executed.

Source: ZigguratRealestate.ph

ASEAN Bank Stability Report Reveals Most (and Least) Reliable Philippines Banks

In the contemporary era where the digital economy shapes the core of financial transactions, the reliance on banking services and stability has significantly escalated, including in the Philippines.

This reliance is not merely a reflection of a preference for convenience, but underscores a pivotal shift towards digital banking as an indispensable component of both personal and business financial management.

The ASEAN Bank Stability Report, introduced by Singaporean fintech software and services firm Brankas, evaluates the resilience and reliability of banking infrastructure, particularly focusing on the ASEAN region with an in-depth analysis of bank stability in both the Philippines and Indonesia.

This comprehensive study of bank uptimes and downtimes aims to dissect the ramifications of traditional bank stability, delving into the operational reliability of banks in the Philippines, challenges in maintaining uninterrupted service, and the consequent impacts on the financial ecosystem at large.

The Critical Role of Uptime in Banking Services

The digital transformation of banking has accentuated the critical nature of continuous service availability. In an age where digital transactions form the backbone of daily financial activities, the stability of online bank services become a fundamental requirement in the Philippines and throughout the region.

The ASEAN Bank Stability Report, through its assessment of network uptime performance, highlights the operational reliability of the major Philippine and Indonesian banks such as RCBC, Bank Mandiri, and UnionBank.

Influential Factors on Bank Uptime

The discourse on banking uptime is nuanced, attributing downtime to several factors including scheduled maintenance, system upgrades, and unforeseen technical glitches.

Scheduled maintenance is a necessary operation for banks, involving essential updates and security enhancements that necessitate temporary service suspensions.

System upgrades are equally vital, ensuring that banking operations align with current industry standards and security requirements. Technical glitches represent unforeseen challenges that can disrupt service.

The swift and effective resolution of such glitches is critical for maintaining service continuity.

The report advocates for a balance between essential maintenance and the need for uninterrupted service, suggesting advanced notifications for scheduled downtimes to minimize customer inconvenience.

Bank Performance Stability in the Philippines

The report provides a detailed overview of the performance metrics of Philippine banks, with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, better known as RCBC, emerging as a frontrunner with an impressive uptime of 98.3% and a record of seven months without any downtime events.

In stark contrast, UnionBank’s performance was highlighted as the least impressive, with an uptime of 95.98% and significant outages, including one that lasted around 20 hours.

Landbank and Metrobank stood out for their proactive dissemination of notices regarding both scheduled and emergency maintenance operations.

In contrast, BPI was diligent in announcing planned maintenance but fell short in alerting customers to unforeseen service interruptions. UnionBank and BDO were notably less efficient in communicating both scheduled and unexpected system disruptions.

Impact of Banking Downtimes in the Philippines

Throughout the year, all banks faced operational downtimes, with UnionBank and Metrobank experiencing the greatest number of incidents. The duration of these downtimes typically varied from one to three hours, although there were instances of extended disruptions:

UnionBank suffered a 20-hour outage, Metrobank experienced downtimes between six and eight hours, BPI had an 18-hour interruption, and Landbank encountered an eight-hour pause in services.

January 2023 emerged as the month with the minimal downtime incidents across banks in the Philippines. RCBC demonstrated exemplary performance by maintaining uninterrupted service for seven consecutive months.

A significant disruption occurred in March when an InstaPay issue impacted the majority of banks, leading to widespread system interruptions.

BDO and Metrobank initiated an eight-hour maintenance shutdown between April and May 2023.

UnionBank observed increased downtime during payday periods, hinting at the existing infrastructure’s inability to manage abrupt surges in demand. UnionBank recorded the highest total downtime of 183 hours over the year, equivalent to an offline status for 7.6 days.

The analysis further reveals the infrastructural strains during peak periods such as payday, suggesting a need for capacity enhancement to handle traffic spikes.

The proactive communication by banks, or lack thereof, in the event of both planned and unplanned outages is underscored as a critical area for improvement, to safeguard reputation and ensure customer satisfaction.

The Banking Sector at a Crossroads

The emergence of digital banks and fintech companies has catalyzed a transformative shift in the banking sector, propelling traditional banks towards innovation and customer-centric service models.

The report highlights a significant consumer trend, with digital banks and fintechs capturing a substantial share of new checking accounts opened in 2023.

This shift not only illustrates the evolving consumer preferences but also serves as a clarion call for traditional banks to adapt and innovate to remain competitive.

The indispensability of a reliable banking ecosystem is emphasized, considering the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks, the demand for cross-border access, and the diverse banking support required across various platforms and devices.

The insights gleaned from the ASEAN Bank Stability Report by Brankas are invaluable for a spectrum of stakeholders within the financial ecosystem, offering a lens through which the reliability and stability of digital banking services can be assessed.

As the report highlights, the significance of network uptime in digital banking cannot be overstated, with its direct implications on business operations and consumer trust.

As the ASEAN region continues to evolve as a dynamic financial hub, the report’s findings offer critical insights for informed decision-making, paving the way for a banking sector that is equipped to meet the challenges of the digital age and cater to the evolving demands of a diverse clientele.

Bank-Stability-Report-ASEAN-2023.pdf

Download PDF • 10.01MB

Source: Fintechnews

Gen Zers and millennials are skipping the savings game

Gen Z’s self-sabotaging spending on ‘caviar bumps,’ luxury holidays, and designer bags is being driven by housing market rebellion and influencer lifestyle envy

What was once a marker of adulthood—owning a home, settling down, and reaping the rewards of hard work—seems a distant dream for today’s youth. Now many Gen Zers and millennials are skipping the savings game, opting for lavish getaways, $250-plus fragrances, and designer handbags instead.

Despite repeated warnings that they’ll end up stuck living with their parents forever if they don’t get their finances in order, 90% of 18-to-34-year-olds would consider buying from a luxury brand.

Even in a cost-of-living crisis, just 17% of young people today describe luxury as unaffordable, according to the Luxury Refocused report. Once-ultra expensive delicacies like caviar have seen a surge in sales thanks to TikTok-fueled trends inspiring Gen Z.

So why are the youth of today seemingly throwing in the towel on homeownership?

“Most of my expenses go [toward] holidays,” says Anette Suveges, a 27-year-old account executive at Harpswood PR. Out of her £35,000 ($44,000) annual income, she has already splurged over £6,000 ($7,600) on trips to the Maldives and Southeast Asia in the last year alone.

“I’m just not interested in even thinking about what’s going to happen in five to 10 years,” Suveges says. “I’m just going to live for the moment, spend the money I have, and enjoy the things that I want right now—even if I have to live paycheck to paycheck.”

“I don’t even know what I want,” echoes 26-year-old Jamie Rossouw, a data journalist at the advertising magazine Campaign. “I don’t know if I want to get married. I don’t know if I want children. I don’t even know if I want to own property. It’s just something that people tell you that you should do.”

One of those people is her stepmother, who does marketing for the mortgage department at Barclays. But instead of taking her advice and saving up for a house deposit, Rossouw has been prioritizing putting money aside each month to specifically spend on vacations and little luxury pick-me-ups.

“If I’m saving every single cent that I can to save toward a house, and you can’t tell me in the next 10 years if that’s even attainable, what am I saving for?” she asks. “Also, COVID put things into perspective in a sense that I want to explore, I want to see the world, and that is something that is attainable and something that I can do now.”

While her millennial stepmother may treat herself once or twice a year, Gen Zer Rossouw says she wouldn’t think twice about spending hundreds on the spot on something in a shop window that catches her fancy. 

“Literally, live life,” Suveges says.

Gen Z aspiring to an influencer luxury lifestyle

Private club Velloy promises its members access to luxury travel, experiences, and exclusive designer sales—and despite having only just started earning salaries, Gen Zers make up its fastest-growing group of members and are the company’s biggest spenders when it comes to luxury goods.

Hugo Cannon, the founder of the members-only concierge service, tells Fortune that Velloy is seeing a surge in young people using the platform to impress their social media followers and look more affluent. 

“Generally there’s this trend of people aspiring to this influencer luxury lifestyle a lot more,” Cannon says. “We’ve seen it with cars…people renting a Ferrari or a Lamborghini for a single day to drive around to get pictures and content.”

“Once you have already set the bar standard for how you look on Instagram or social media, you kind of want to keep that look,” echoes 26-year-old visual merchandising coordinator Aleah Wright. 

This mindset had gotten some members of her generation trapped in a cycle of trying to emulate their peers online and then keeping up with that “aesthetic.”

What’s more, “keeping up with the Joneses” is not only driving Gen Z to spend their money instead of saving it—it’s also contributing to some poor investment purchases.

“For instance, the people that use us to source Birkins, if they’re getting them at retail value they are making a two- or three-times return on investment—at a minimum,” Cannon adds. “But people are buying similar brands that they consider to be luxury, but they’re not investment pieces.”

Interestingly, many of the Gen Zers that Fortune spoke to saw their luxury purchases as an “investment” in their memories.

For example, when Wright finished her Prada internship she commemorated the moment by purchasing the recently discontinued Prada Gaufre bag, which can be found secondhand online for around $600.

“I wanted to treat myself and buy something to have a memory of it,” she says, adding that it was the first on her designer bag wish list—including Loewe’s Puzzle bag and Chanel’s Jumbo Flap—which she plans on ticking off over the next couple of years.

“I feel like my bags are investments,” she explains. “It’s an investment in my wardrobe that I’ll be wearing for years and years and years… I don’t plan on selling my Prada bag, I want to pass that down to my kids.”

Like many others in her generation, Wright also considers jet-setting an investment.

She’s prioritizing saving up for more trips around Europe over getting on the property ladder until she hits her thirties at least.

“Saving money is great, and being able to attain bigger goals like a car or house is great. But being able to spend money on the things that you’re going to enjoy, like a trip that you’ll never forget or bags that you love and wear for years, is also worth it,” she adds. “Like, those are memories I’m gonna have and never forget.”

“It’s like the classic quote, ‘Money comes and goes, but the memories last a lifetime,'” Cannon chuckles.

A lack of hope in the housing market

A sizable chunk of Gen Zers are running through their money—or rather, doom-spending—because they doubt they’ll ever be able to get on the property ladder.

Essentially, splurging feels better than stressing about potentially renting into retirement.

“I think it boils down to lack of hope,” says Rossouw. “With the current market, the cost-of-living crisis and just the way things are going, buying a house doesn’t seem attainable.” 

It’s why Suveges describes her generation’s self-sabotaging spending habits as an act of “rebelling against getting on the property ladder.”

“The whole property market is ridiculous and honestly, I refuse to be a slave for them,” she explains. “Me and the rest of my peers, we see through the flaws in the system and that it’s ultimately the salaries and the economy that make a difference, not our purchasing decisions.”

In her view, even if she put away £500 ($640) a month, it still wouldn’t guarantee that she would be able to buy a house as interest rates and property prices rise rapidly.

However, it would diminish her current quality of life “because saving that much would mean literally not leaving the house.”

To make matters worse, her generation isn’t even sure if there will be a future to enjoy anyway.

With geopolitical tensions and climate change on the verge of a catastrophic tipping point, some are spending like there’s no tomorrow.

“I’m just focusing on the present because the future is depressing,” Suveges concludes.

“I think there’s a lot to say about people wanting to distract themselves from what’s going on,” Rossouw echoes. “The future is uncertain at the moment—with the wars going on and the rising cost of living, it just doesn’t seem worth saving for.”

Source: Fortune