Banco Nacional announced Nov.1 that its subsidiary BN Fondos will begin offering Costa Ricans16 investment funds from global fund giant Franklin Templeton Investments.
The funds range from stock investment in emerging markets to investment in U.S. Treasury bonds, with the accompanying range of risks, said Hugo Petricioli, Franklin Templeton’s manager for Mexico and Central America.
“Here you have exactly the same product that they have in Switzerland and New York, at the same price,” Petricioli said, explaining that Costa Rican investors no longer have to look abroad to invest in these products.
Banco Nacional CEO Pablo Montes de Oca said the bank has yet to make the funds officially available and set the fees, but that should be completed within the next few weeks.
Franklin Templeton is an investment management company publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. One of the largest in the world, as of Sept. 30 the company had $645 billion worth of investment under its management.
Montes de Oca said Banco Nacional had been in talks with Franklin Templeton for a year and a half about offering its products in Costa Rica. The arrival of large, multinational banks to the Costa Rican market, along with the investment products they plan to offer, spurred Banco Nacional to offer its own products.
“The mega banks that have come here said they want to bring large investment tools,”Montes de Oca said. “We’re not going to sit around waiting for that to happen.”
