BSP okays expansion of ABN Amro, StanChart

Two foreign banks, ABN Amro and Standard Chartered Bank, have gotten the go-signal of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to expand their operations in the Philippines.

BSP Deputy Governor Alberto Reyes said ABN Amro was cleared of a legal problem involving its takeover and merger with Malaysian unit TA Bank Philippines Inc.

The BSP also approved the application of Standard Chartered Bank for a universal banking license.

With the approval, Standard Chartered will be able to expand its core businesses of treasury, personal and consumer banking, and go into non-allied services and underwriting. This will also ease its plans to tap the capital market.

On ABN Amro, Reyes said that with the legal opinion issued by the BSP general counsel, the final details of a memorandum of agreement between ABN Amro and TA Bank will be threshed out, paving the way for the final merger by August.

The merger was stalled because of a provision under the new General Banking Law of 2000 which called for a moratorium on issuance of new banks licenses for three years. The law instead allows foreign banks to acquire up to 100 percent of a local bank. The law intended to encourage the mergers of smaller banks.

The BSP general counsel said that with the acquisition of ABN Amro, a thrift bank with 25 branches and about 500 employees, will automatically acquired the commercial bank license of TA Bank which is 60 percent owned by the Puyat family.

A fresh capital infusion of as much as P1.7 billion will be made into the merged bank to meet the capital requirements of a full-fledged commercial bank. Local banking laws require commercial banks to have a capital of at least P2.4 billion.

ABN Amro is the local unit of Dutch bank ABN Amro Savings Bank, the world’s sixth largest bank. – Rocel Felix