President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. has backed the proposal of merging the two state-owned banks, the Landbank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), to make it the number one bank in the Philippines.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, March 28, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Marcos expressed his desire to merge the two banks due to the recent financial developments abroad.
"And that’s really the best practice, the biggest bank usually is owned by the state globally," he said.
According to Diokno, the President's only concern is that none of the services provided by either bank will be lost in the process of merging.
"We assured him that with the merger—because both the Landbank and DBP are universal banks, they do almost the same, right, except that one is focused on agri, the other one on industrial projects. But they are practically the same," he shared.
The Finance Secretary noted that the planned merger has advantages as it will generate savings for the government and it will lower the interest rate.
"For the projected operating cost savings could reach at least ₱5.3 billion per year. So, for the next four years, at least Php 20 billion," he added.
Diokno also noted that in this plan, only 22 out of the 147 branches of DBP will be retained.
Meanwhile, the President said they will continue to discuss the proposed merger.
"During the length of that time, we’ll discuss some more and see what other elements of this that might have to be incorporated into the new system, the new banking, the new bank, if that’s a merger or how we will do it," Marcos said during the cabinet meeting.
"Maybe there’s some midpoint that... So that we can attend to all the concerns of both banks," he added.
