MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has given Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) the go signal to absorb its wholly owned thrift bank arm, RCBC Savings Bank, for a more efficient capital deployment and operational cost efficiencies. Cristina Alvarez, corporate planning head and corporate information officer at RCBC, said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange the BSP approved the merger between RCBC and RCBC Savings Bank last June 17. RCBC is the country’s 10th largest bank in terms of assets with P346.2 billion as of end-December 2018 and eighth largest in terms of capital with P83.24 billion, while RCBC Savings Bank is the third largest thrift banks in terms of assets with P139.91 billion and third largest in terms of capital with P13.28 billion. RCBC has 332 branches and 1,138 ATMs, while RCBC Savings Bank has 154 branches and 459 ATMs. Outgoing RCBC president and chief executive officer Gil Buenaventura earlier said the process for the merger of RCBC Savings Bank and RCBC is already underway and is planned to commence in the second half of 2019.

Source: Philippine Star June 18, 2019 16:09 UTC