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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Banking & Finance devider BSP approves 15 new banking offices in Q4 2023

BSP approves 15 new banking offices in Q4 2023

Published Apr 3, 2024 07:52 am

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) approved a total of 15 new banking offices in the fourth quarter of 2023, including one application to set up a regular bank branch and 14 branch-lite units (BLU), almost three times higher than the five bank offices greenlighted in the previous quarter. 

Based on a circular letter (CL-2024-001) signed by BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier on March 26, 2024, only the Sy-led BDO Unibank Inc. of the universal and commercial banks applied for one BLU in Angeles City.

Meanwhile, 14 were applications submitted by rural and cooperative banks, of which one was for a regular branch and 13 for BLUs. The rural banks were as follows: Card MRI Bank, a microfinance bank; Country Builders Bank; Rang-ay Bank; and Rural Bank of San Narciso.

The BSP has been approving less and less regular branches of banks and more of the streamlined units with limited banking services.

The new approval brought to a total of 29 new regular branches that opened in the last quarter last year and 32 BLUs in the same period. 

Among the big banks, BDO opened five regular branches in Nueva Vizcaya and Batangas, and one BLU in IloiIo City.

Land Bank of the Philippines opened a BLU in Liloan, Cebu, while Maybank Philippines has a new one in Legazpi City.

For the regular branches, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. opened one regular branch in Rosario, La Union, while Security Bank Corp. opened seven regular branches in different parts of the country include in Bataan, Cagayan de Oro City, Cebu City and Iligan City.

Regular branches are full-sized banks, mostly traditional brick-and-mortar branches or contained within a building and offers full banking services.

The difference between regular branches and BLUs is that the latter have limited banking activities but could provide a wide range of products and services suited for servicing the needs of the market except for sophisticated clients with aggressive risk tolerance.

As of end-February this year, the BSP is supervising 44 big banks, 42 thrift banks, and 388 rural and cooperative banks.

Presently, there are 12,877 bank branches in the country, of which 7,152 are operated by the big banks, 2,560 by thrift banks, and 3,165 by rural and cooperative banks.

Since the pandemic and the rise of digital banking including e-wallet and other online-only or mobile financial transactions in the last three years, the banking industry has reorganized, streamlined and consolidated their traditional brick-and-mortar branches, and opted to digitalized more of its products and services.

Based on the BSP's Banking Sector Outlook Survey, the digitalization of banking products and services continued to be identified as a top strategic priority by all banks.

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