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Ateneo Finance Team garners 3^rd Place Honors in the ICFC
by Manuel Ricardo L.O. Sacramento
(Assistant Instructor, Department of Finance and Accounting)

For the 5^th straight year, the Ateneo de Manila University's Finance Team landed in the Top 3 positions of the Intercollegiate Finance Competition (ICFC) sponsored by the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) during the National Finals held last 22 September at the brand new Jose P. Laurel Hall of Freedom of the Lyceum of the Philippines. Now on its 6th year, the ICFC boasted of its biggest participation ever of more than 100 universities and colleges from all over the Philippines, and only 21 of these made the cut for the National Finals during the Eliminations held on 10 September 2004 at the auditorium of Far Eastern University.

This year, Team Ateneo was proudly represented by Shelly T. Lim (IV BS Management, major in Legal Management), Michael David A. Son (III AB Economics-Honors Program), John Andrew C. Sy (IV BS Management-Honors Program), Kimberly Diane T. Tan (III BS Management Engineering) and Dyanne L. Ventura (IV BS Management Engineering). They were coached by Dr. Maritess A. Khanser of the Department of Leadership and Strategy, and Messrs. Darwin D. Yu and Manuel Ricardo L.O. Sacramento, both of the Department of Finance and Accounting.

This year, the team from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, comprised by five 5^th year Business Administration and Accountancy students emerged as Champion, garnering 840 points out of a possible total of 1,000 points. After ending up third last year to De La Salle University-Manila and AdMU, UP-Diliman immediately asserted superiority, leading the second placer behind by as much as 13 difficult questions.  It was, however, a heart-stopping battle for 2^nd place between University of Santo Tomas and the Ateneo de Manila University, which was settled until the very last question. UST had a total of 600 points, while AdMU had a total of 580 points – a difference of only one (1) difficult question. Rounding up the Top 6 teams are Manuel S. Enverga University of Lucena City, last year's defending champions De La Salle University-Manila, and University of San Carlos-Cebu, respectively. The Top 6 teams were treated to a 3-day all expenses paid live-in seminar entitled Citibank Young Bankers' Congress at the Makati Shangri-La.

This year's National Finals became increasingly competitive with four rounds of Difficult Questions patterned after the Level I qualifying exam for the Chartered Financial Analyst Program. The questions covered topics in financial accounting, quantitative analysis, economics, fixed income and equity securities analysis, portfolio management, corporate finance and international financial management.  Dean Rudy Ang was particularly happy with the performance of Team Ateneo given that the JGSOM was the only institution that sent students who are not majoring in accountancy or finance. So far, there are only two institutions that have managed to consistently place within the Top 3 of each ICFC: AdMU and UP-Diliman. "It is my wish that we consistently place in the Top 3 every year notwithstanding the fact that the major programs we have at the JGSOM are primarily general management in orientation", he added.  For his part, Head Coach Mr. Darwin Yu believes that intensive training for the next roster of the Ateneo Finance Team will be key if we are to consistently maintain or even improve on our performance for the 7th ICFC which is being planned by the Junior FINEX Committee to go international and include business schools from Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.

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