(by Ginger O'Neil)

Emerging market players received unexpected support from the world’s leading banks as they cut the bill by 25% for Philippine Finance Undersecretary Eric Recto.

The investors from the U.S., Europe and Japan are looking for the higher yields in emerging markets and the markets, therefore, see debt sales boom in the recent years and banks now appeared to compete for about $300 million in fees in 2004 out of the total of $97 billion.

``Fees go down, volumes go up; you still make money. We’d all love to have higher fees but it’s a competitive world out there,’’ ’’ said Philip Bennett, a head of international capital markets at Citigroup Inc. in London.
Last year, investors gained $34 billion from Philippine Eurobonds. Research data show yearly gains from the emerging markets to surpass 16% within past few years.

``You’re looking at one piece of the revenue,’’ said Jonathan Brown, JPMorgan’s head of emerging-market debt syndication in London. ``It’s very difficult to have a presence in the secondary market if you’re not managing sales in the primary market.’’