Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Tuesday said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supports the proposed merger of state-run banks Landbank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines.
The matter was discussed during a sectoral meeting held on Tuesday, Diokno said in a briefing.
Merging the 2 financial institutions will create a bank that’s bigger than BDO Unibank in terms of assets, the Finance chief said.
BDO is currently the country’s largest bank in terms of assets as of September 2022, followed by the Landbank of the Philippines. DBP is at the 8th spot.
“By merging the 2, it will now become the number 1 bank in the Philippines… That’s really the best practice, the biggest bank is owned by the state, globally,” Diokno said.
“The President expressed the desire to merge the 2 to make it the biggest bank in the country because of the recent financial developments abroad,” he added.
The merger will result in savings for the government of about P5.3 billion per year in the next 4 years. Loans from the surviving entity may also be lower than the current rates, he said.
“As a result of the merger, there will be savings, the merged bank will be stronger. One likely outcome of this is maybe interest rate charged will be lower,” Diokno said.
To date, Landbank has 752 branches while DBP has 147.
