Manila, Philippines – Taipan Lucio Tan’s Philippine National Bank (PNB) is folding up its operations in a key remittance market in the Middle East and dissolving two business units as the bank undergoes a changing of the guard.
PNB told the stock exchange on Monday that its board of directors, following a meeting last Friday, Sept. 26, voted on the “closure of PNB Bahrain Representative Office in the Middle East, subject to the approval of regulators of Bahrain.”
Board approval is needed before the lender sends a notice of closure to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and before a letter of intent is submitted to the Central Bank of Bahrain and the Bahrain Ministry of Commerce.
Established as a state-owned bank in 1916, PNB is a pioneer in the remittance business, with 71 branches and representative offices abroad, remittance centers and subsidiaries across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. As of end-December, it has 631 domestic branches and 1,715 automated teller machines nationwide, according to regulatory filings.
In its latest annual report, PNB said “the bank also faces competition in its operations overseas,” with its stronghold in remittance markets “ being challenged by competitor banks and non-banks.”
The decision comes amid a management shakeup: the bank has a new president and CEO, Edwin Bautista, formerly from Union Bank of the Philippines, since April.
Two of the lender’s top executives – executive vice president Jose German Licup and senior vice president Ma. Lourdes Liwag – will be on mandatory retirement in October, Monday’s disclosure said.
The board also dissolved PNB’s consumer finance and enterprise services sector. The consumer finance unit is the unit covering retail and corporate clients – from credit and debit cards, to mortgages like car, real estate and personal loan.
