The country’s big banks, led by BDO Unibank Inc. and Security Bank Corp. (SBC), applied for new regular branches while others such as Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) also operated new ones in the first three months of the year.
BDO applied to open six regular or “brick and mortar” branches last March to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), despite its drive to offer more online or digital banking products and services.
The SM Group-controlled bank applied to set up regular branches in the cities of Zamboanga, Toledo, Cebu, Surigao, Calumpit (Bulacan) and in Caloocan.
BDO will also open branch-lite units (BLUs) in Sorsogon City and Tagum City, based on a BSP memo signed by BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier last July 16.
Meanwhile, SBC applied to operate seven regular branches and two BLUs in January this year. The regular branches will be located in the cities of Cadiz, Davao, Tagaytay, Quezon and in Concepcion (Tarlac) and San Mateo, Rizal.
Two SBC LBUs, meanwhile, will be set up in Makati City.
Besides BDO and SBC, some rural and cooperative banks also applied to open new branches.
BDO’s rural bank subsidiary, BDO Network Bank, is proposing to open 26 BLUs across the country. The other rural banks seeking BSP approval are Bayanihan Rural Bank, CARD Bank, Cebuana Lhuillier Rural Bank and Rural Bank of Solano (Nueva Vizcaya).
In the first quarter, the BSP memo indicated that several universal and commercial banks after their application was approved, started operations of new branches in January and February.
These include BPI, BDO and its BDO Private Bank, China Banking Corp., SBC, Development Bank of the Philippines, and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
There were also two thrift banks that opened branches in March, namely BPI Direct BanKO and Producers Savings Bank Corp.
On the other hand, nine rural and cooperative banks also opened branches – all BLUs – in the first quarter.
The biggest was BDO Network Bank with 10 BLUs.
Regular branches are full-sized banks, mostly traditional brick and mortar branches or contained within a building. These offer full banking services.
The difference between regular branches and BLUs is that the latter have limited banking activities but could provide a wide range of products and services suited for servicing the needs of the market except for sophisticated clients with aggressive risk tolerance.
The BSP has been favoring more of the streamlined BLUs with limited banking services amid the industry’s changing landscape.
But since the 2020 Covid crisis, which expanded digital banking in the country, including e-wallet and other online-only financial services and payments, the banking sector has reorganized, streamlined and consolidated their traditional branches.
Presently, there are 12,939 bank branches in the country, of which 7,063 are operated by the big banks; 3,224 by thrift banks; and 3,652 by rural and cooperative banks.
