UnionBank to drop Citi brand in early 2024

MANILA, Philippines — Union Bank of the Philippines will drop the Citi brand by the first quarter of next year after completing the P72-billion buyout of Citi’s consumer banking business in the country.

UnionBank president and CEO Edwin Bautista said clients would continue to gradually receive their credit or debit cards without the Citi brand name.

“It’s going to be a gradual process as you change the card. But I think the absolute drop date would probably be the end of the first quarter next year. But of course, between now and then some people are already going to get the UnionBank card,” Bautista said.

He pointed out that there are currently about 1.5 million active UnionBank credit cards.

The Aboitiz-led bank unveiled four new credit cards on Oct. 25 to cater to the different needs and lifestyles of the customers. These include the UnionBank Rewards Card, UnionBank Cash Back Card, UnionBank Miles+ Card and UnionBank Reserve Card.

On the other hand, Bautista said BancNet data showed UnionBank has the highest number of issued debit cards with 12.9 million.

Bautista said the bank managed to almost double the number of issued debit cards from five million to six million prior to the global health crisis.

“But in the last three years, everyone stayed flat, we doubled. Plus we also got Citi so that’s another one million, But we on our own, we also generated maybe four million or five million during the COVID period,” he said.

The bank has already taken down the Citi logo at the Citibank Square Eastwood in Libis, Quezon City that served as the home of Citibank NA consumer banking group in the last 20 years.

The building was part of several real estate properties and interest of Citi Square Building Inc. that was part of the transaction.

Bautista said UnionBank has taken over the entire Citibank Square Eastwood building after acquiring the upper floors. Citi used to own 70 percent of the building.

“We bought the additional upper floors, so we now own practically the entire building,” he said.

He added that the ground floor of the 19-story building would house UnionBank’s flagship wealth management office, while the upper floors would accommodate the bank’s expanded workforce.

He explained that most of the bank’s programmers have been transferred to the UnionBank Innovation Campus in San Pedro, Laguna.