EastWest Rural Bank
 | |
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Finance and Insurance |
| Founded | 1975 in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, Philippines (as Rural Green Bank of Caraga) |
| Headquarters | Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines |
Number of locations | 76 stores (including extension offices (EO) and other banking offices (OBO) as of 1Q-2017) |
Key people |
|
| Products | Financial Services |
Php 634 million ( 22%) (2015) | |
| Total assets |
Php 13.5 billion (62%) (2016) |
Number of employees | 1,000 |
| Parent | East West Banking Corporation |
| Website | www.eastwestruralbank.com |
EastWest Rural Bank, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of East West Banking Corporation. A member of the Filinvest Group, led by the Gotianun Family.[1] It is the second largest rural bank in the Philippines in terms of assets.[2]
It was formerly known as Green Bank (or the Rural Green Bank of Caraga), was a Philippine rural bank based in Butuan City and also acquired since 2013 by East West Banking Corporation alongside FinMan Bank, a rural bank based in Pasig City. Prior to its acquisition it was the largest bank in the Caraga region in terms of assets, and it had 46 branches. It was also one of three rural banks to be affiliated with the Philippine interbank network BancNet since 2006.
History
Green Bank was incorporated with the Filipino Securities and Exchange Commission as the Rural Bank of Nasipit on June 20, 1974. The bank commenced actual operations on April 5, 1975, originally to serve the municipality of Nasipit, Agusan del Norte.
The bank took advantage of a government rediscounting program called Masagana 99, with the intention of helping poor farmers gain access to credit. However, in the 1980s, with the plunge of the Philippine economy into recession and the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr., Green Bank suffered a very high non-performing loan ratio due to the inability of its farmer-debtors to pay off their Masagana 99 loans. For the next few years, the bank's financial standing gradually deteriorated.
In 1988 the Central bank of the Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas issued Circular No. 1126 in 1988, designed to help recapitalize and revitalize distressed rural banks. In the case of Green Bank, it had arrears with the Bangko Sentral amounting to some fifteen million pesos, requiring it to recapitalize to cope with capital deficiency. Initially, stockholders refused, although some stockholders eventually agreed to aid the bank's recapitalization.
In 1989, the bank's board of directors appointed Rufa C. Susan to the position of manager, helping bring the bank back to profitability. Green Bank's capital was increased from two million pesos to twenty million pesos in 1992. This was later increased to sixty million pesos and further on to five hundred million pesos.
The bank merged with the Rural Bank of Alegria in 2000, becoming the largest rural bank in the Caraga region. It joined BancNet in 2006, being one of three banks that joined the interbank network.
The bank followed the Grameen Bank experimentation with conversion of borrowers from joint liability loans, to individual liability loans, with no drop in repayments.[3]
EastWest Rural Bank or EWRB (formerly FinMan Bank, Inc.) consolidates, through an asset acquisition, effective November 1, 2013 the rural banking business of the two rural banks that East West earlier acquired, namely Green Bank, Inc. and FinMan Bank, Inc. FinMan Bank is a 16-year-old rural bank based in Pasig City and engaged in extending credit to farmers, tenants, and rural enterprises. East West injected a total of P520 million in fresh capital into EWRB subsequent to the regulatory approval effective May 21, 2013 on the latter’s increase in authorized capital stock from P80 million to P1 billion.
On October 31, 2013, EastWest acquired the good assets of Green Bank, Inc. (also known as the Rural Green Bank of Caraga), the largest rural bank in the Caraga Region in terms of assets. Based in Butuan, Green Bank has been serving the needs of mostly farmers, government and private employees, barangay officials, pensioners and small-scale businessmen. Through Green Bank’s strong branch network in the Visayas and Mindanao, EastWest is able to gain entry into the microfinance business and expand its presence in Mindanao to increase its rural lending business. Approval was given for the acquisition in December 2013.[4]
As of 2016, EastWest Rural Bank had a total branch network of seventy six (76) stores, including extension offices and other banking offices all throughout the country.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ "Philippines' Top 50 Billionaires". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
- ↑ "Top 100 Rural and Cooperative Banks in the Philippines". BSP. Retrieved 2017-07-23.
- ↑ The Handbook of Market Design Nir Vulkan, Alvin E. Roth, Zvika Neeman - 2013 - Page 254 "They conducted two experiments with the Green Bank, a Grameen-style lender in the Philippines, which conducted its redesign in stages and at centers chosen randomly. In the first experiment, some of the existing Green Bank centers, in which borrowers were receiving joint liability loans, were chosen at random to have their loans converted to individual liability loans."
- ↑ "EastWest gets nod to merge with Green Bank". The Philippine Star. December 1, 2013.
- ↑ "EastWest acquired Caraga based rural bank and 16-year-old Pasig based rural bank". Pinoyjobs.ph. January 23, 2016.