UnionBank names former Citibank exec as new COO

MANILA, Philippines — Union Bank of the Philippines has appointed a former official of Citibank Philippines as its new chief operations officer.

In a disclosure to the Philippines Stock Exchange on Monday, the Aboitiz-led bank named Manish Chawla as the new COO and executive vice president under its Office of the Chief Technology and Operations Officers.

Chawla, the former site head of Citigroup Business Process Solutions Pte. Ltd., was also the director and head of operations and technology at Citibank Philippines from 2019 to 2022.

He has two decades of experience in the financial services industry, specifically in the core consumer operations of Citibank, where he worked in Indonesia for seven years from 2005 to 2012 and the Singapore arm’s region credit operations in 2013.

Last August 2022, UnionBank officially acquired the consumer banking business of Citi in the Philippines, taking over its local credit card, retail deposit, personal and unsecured loans, and asset management portfolio matters. 

Chawla also spent five years in another commercial banking business, the financial services arm of conglomerate General Electric, GE Capital and GE SBI Cards.

Chawla obtained his post-graduate degree in Finance and Control from the Kurukshetra University in India.