PNB to open 15 new branches this year

CEBU, Philippines - To take advantage of the recovering economy and strong banking sector in the country, the Philippine National Bank (PNB) announced to open 15 new branches this year.

About five new branches will be opened in Metro Manila, in the second quarter of this year, another five in the following quarter and five more in the fourth quarter of 2011.

PNB president and chief executive officer (CEO) Eugene Acevedo said that the bank will make its presence felt in the highly populated areas like shopping malls and implement a 7-day banking operation, with longer service hours for depositors.

Part of the plan is to open additional branches in Cebu, Tagbilaran (Bohol), and Cagayan de Oro City.

At present, there are a total of 324 PNB branches nationwide, 14 of which are located in Cebu province, including Toledo City and Bogo.

The bank will also increase the number of ATM (Automated Teller Machine) as a total of 150 new machines will be deployed in major locations, in addition to its existing 409 ATMs installed in different areas around the country.

In 2010, PNB registered its highest income ever in recent years as net profits surged to P3.54 billion, surpassing the previous year’s level of P2.20 billion by a hefty 61 percent.

Return-on-equity sprung back to double-digit levels at 11 percent, up from seven percent a year ago.

The bank’s strong earnings performance last year was buoyed by the 21 percent growth in non-interest income of P9.10 billion.

Known of its strong remittance business, the Lucio Tan-led bank is also adopting a new direction in remittance operations, transferring some of its offshore operations to the Philippines, in order to cut cost.

“We want our remittance business to be more profitable. Before, we were losing money because of high operational expense abroad.

Publicly-listed PNB was originally established as a government bank in 1916 but has been 100 percent privatized since 2007. It is now 67 percent owned by the Lucio Tan Group, while the remaining 30 percent ownership is shared by the public investors, and some huge portfolio of foreign stakeholders.

To date, the bank holds a total of 3.1 million account holders, about one million are OFWs. Acevedo said with the strong building, and continuous improvement of its substance inside.

With this, Acevedo hopes that the bank will attract more depositors from the younger generation.

Earlier, the bank announced that it is going to spend at least P400 million for the major face lift of its 324 branches nationwide, to keep up with the tough competition in the banking industry.

To date, the bank already renovated 83 of its branches, mostly are located in Luzon, and one in Cebu. Within one and a half years, the bank targets to complete the renovation of at least over a hundred branches. (FREEMAN)