A merger between government-run banking institutions Landbank and DBP gets a nod from the President.
In a briefing, Department of Finance Secretary Bejamin Diokno said that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. supports the merger plans between Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
Once merged, the surviving entity from the LBP-DBP merger “will become the biggest bank in the country,” Diokno added. Currently, the distinction of such goes to BDO Unibank, with Landbank ranking second. DBP, meanwhile, is at number 8.
Previously, DBP board members have expressed their opposition to the merger, saying that the mandate between the two banks “differ.” DBP focuses on giving credit support to infrastructure and logistics, MSMEs, environment, and social services. Landbank, meanwhile, gives priority to sectors like the fisheries, agriculture, among others.
This is also not the first time that the two banking institutions have been planned to merge. In 2016, during the Aquino administration, the then-President sugned Executive Order No. 198, which would have created the second-largest bank in the Philippines at that time, with Landbank still the planned surviving entity. However, that was later reversed by ex-President Duterte, keeping the status quo that remains up to now.
Previously, in 2021, Landbank had also entered a merger with another government bank, United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB). The two entities completed their union in 2022, with all UCPB customers and branches transferred to Landbank.