AYALA-LED Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has rolled out BPI Direct BanKo, Inc. (BanKo), its microfinance subsidiary, in a bid to tap the country’s micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) segment and promote financial inclusion.

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Bank of the Philippine Islands has merged two of its thrift bank units to create a microfinance subsidiary. — AFP

The country’s third largest bank in asset terms on Tuesday officially launched its microfinance bank, a result of the merger of two of BPI’s thrift bank units: BPI Direct Savings Bank, Inc. and BPI Globe BanKO (BanKO).

“This merger created a much bigger BanKo…substantial enough to address BPI’s aspirations for its microfinance business. The merged bank, BPI Direct BanKo, was redirected to focus on the self-employed micro entrepreneurs or SEMEs,” BanKo Chairman Natividad N. Alejo said in a media briefing on Tuesday.

BPI Direct Savings Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPI, which was originally built as the parent bank’s agricultural unit and transformed into a virtual bank after BPI had expanded its agriculture loan portfolio.

“BanKo offers low cost banking services particularly loans to SEMEs whose borrowing needs are usually too big for the microfinance institutions and even rural banks too small for commercial and thrift banks to pay attention too,” Ms. Alejo said.

Meanwhile, BanKO was established in 2009 as a partnership between BPI, Globe Telecom, Inc. and Ayala Corp. after the listed lender bought the shares held by Globe and Ayala in the joint venture.

The listed lender earlier said it will increase its stake in BanKO by buying the shares of Globe and Ayala at 40% and 20%, respectively. BPI owns 40% of BanKO.

BPI President and Chief Executive Officer Cezar P. Consing said they want to expand BanKo’s reach “quickly,” and expects to put up 14 new branches and offices by end-July as they aim to end 2017 with a total branch network of 100.

For his part, BanKo President and Chief Executive Officer Jerome B. Minglana said the success of these SEMEs “is a key component to making the Philippine progress. We are one with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in the belief that bringing an effective access to a wide range of products and services to all is key to uplifting the lives of our fellow Filipinos.”

Listed BPI booked a 25.6% growth in its earnings to P6.25 billion in the first quarter from the P4.98 billion logged in the same period in 2016 on the back of a rise in its net interest income during the period.

The bank’s net interest income during the January to March period climbed 15% to P11.49 billion on the back of an increase in asset yields and loan volumes, compared to the P10 billion booked in the three-month period in 2016.

BPI’s total loans stood at P1.03 trillion during the period, 19.9% up compared to the P861.22 billion recorded in the previous year.

Its total deposits also rose to P1.44 trillion in the first quarter, 10.7% higher than the P1.30 trillion booked in 2016.

BPI shares closed at P106.90 apiece yesterday, down 10 centavos or 0.09% from Monday’s finish. — Janine Marie D. Soliman

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