UnionBank names new heads for thrift, digital banking arms

MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines has announced the changing of the guards in its thrift and digital banking arms.

UnionBank has named Manuel Santiago Jr. as president and chief operating officer of City Savings Bank, replacing Lorenzo Ocampo who was named vice chairman and CEO of the thrift bank.

Likewise, UnionBank chief customer experience officer and chief digital channels officer Ana Aboitiz Delgado was named new chairperson of CitySavings.

Delgado took great strides in growing UnionBank’s digital customer base through its UB Online mobile app and was the force behind the transformation and redesign of its branches to the Ark, which elevated the customer experience in physical premises.

Additionally, Delgado also played a key role in the signing of the game-changing acquisition between Citibank N.A. and UnionBank.

CitySavings is the country’s fourth largest thrift bank in terms of assets with P114.82 billion as of end-September last year. It ranked second in terms of capital with P17.33 billion.

The thrift bank of the Aboitiz Group ranked fourth in terms of deposits and net loans with P60.36 billion and P74.86 billion, respectively, as of end-September last year.

Delgado replaces CitySavings chairman and UnionBank chief technology and operations officer Henry Aguda who was president and CEO of UnionDigital.

The concurrent chief transformation officer of UnionBank replaces Ramon Vicente de Vera who is now tasked lead a new market expansion role for the bank.

Aguda was instrumental in the trailblazing digital transformation of UnionBank and the expansion of the reach of CitySavings to reach in the mass and underserved markets via the accelerated approval of teacher and motorcycle loans through the use of data science credit-scoring and acquisition models when he chaired the thrift bank.

“These leadership appointments are key to taking both CitySavings and UnionDigital to the next level of digitally driven growth and scale, toward our aspiration to be a Great Retail Bank,” UnionBank president and CEO Edwin Bautista said.