It's business as usual at PBB

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Business Bank (PBB) is not experiencing any unusual volume of withdrawals, contrary to rumors linking it to the shuttered Export and Industry Bank (EIB), its top executive said yesterday.

PBB president and chief executive officer Rolando R. Avante said while they have received a few text inquiries about the rumors, “we explained to the depositors and other inquiries that PBB and EIB had nothing in common, except that Ambassador Alfredo Yao was the vice chairman of EIB, and he is the majority stakeholder of PBB.”

“Other than that, strict regulations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) keep the bank in place,” Avante said.

Bank sources said there are probably same disgruntled and misguided depositors of EIB, who do not know the difference between the two banks.

PBB officials said they were aware of a few withdrawals from depositors who were also depositors of EIB. “But the amounts were negligible,” they added.

They said the bank will still set aside emergency amounts just in case there are “unusual withdrawals” to allow the bank to service these transactions.

EIB has been placed under receivership by the BSP, with the receiver being the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC). Sy-owned BDO Unibank Inc. is in the process of acquiring EIB through negotiations with both the BSP and the PDIC.

PBB is “in the pink of health,” reporting a first quarter net income of P442 million, or 270 percent higher than the P119 million reported in the same period in 2011, Avante said.

The thrift bank has a capital base of P3.7 billion, just short of the minimum capital base of P4.5 billion required for universal banks or expanded commercial banks.

In fact, the bank is in the process of building up its capital to classify for a universal banking license and will practically come hand-in-hand with a public listing.

In 2011, PBB realized a net income of P730 million, from P688 million in 2010 and P217 million in 2009. It operates 60 branches nationwide.

PBB is part of a larger conglomerate which includes Amchem Marketing Inc., Asiawide Refreshing Corp., Harman Foods (Phils.) Inc., King of Travel, Money Movers Inc., Semexco Merketing Inc., SMI Development Corp., Solmac Marketing Inc. Uni-ipel Industries Inc., Zesto-O Philippines Inc. and Zest-Air.