Relevance

At the 175th anniversary gala dinner of the country’s oldest financial institution, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, 69, and president TG Limcaoco, 63, defined what it means to be relevant for 200 years.

BPI is so old it was at one time the central bank of the Philippines itself. During its quartoseptcentenary, the bank did everything and anything – from collecting and depositing the tax collection and loot of the imperial Spanish civil government in the Philippines to financing the dynamite purchases and sabotage activities of Filipino rebels trying to overthrow the colonizers entrenched since 1565.  From 1850 to 1896, the Philippines was ruled by 25 Spanish governors general, each ruling for no longer than three years.

By 1896, the Filipino revolutionaries led by Emilio Aguinaldo had overthrown Spanish rule, only to succumb to the new invaders – the Americans.  The Americans ended Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Cuba, after the mock Battle of Manila Battle on May 1, 1898 during which the admirals of the US and Spanish navies were sipping coffee while their troops engaged in acoustics warfare. It was to save the Spanish pride and face.

You could imagine the navigational skills BPI employed in those times to remain relevant – with 25 Spanish governors general (imagine a Duterte or a Marcos ruling in succession), hotheaded guerrillas like Bonifacio, gullible generals like Aguinaldo, lascivious Spanish friars like Padre Damaso and Trumpish invaders like the Americans. Also in those years, the Holy See and Madrid were quarreling. It’s like being prayerful every night while the Guardia Civil were making arrests without warrants.

Just like today, the Catholic Church could not be of much help with the problems Filipinos had then with the military government of Spain.Today, the problems are bigger, with the corrupt, endlessly greedy entrenched dynasties the new local rulers.

Fast forward to the 21st century. BPI manages to be No. 2 in resources (P3.659 trillion, June 2026) behind No. 1 BDO (P5.743 trillion), among our commercial banks. No. 3 is Metrobank, P3.581 trillion and No. 4, Land Bank P3.54-trillion assets.

Land Bank should be No. 1 but the corrupt dynasties withdraw money (our tax money) from the government bank and park their loot with private banks – the movements monitored, happily but quietly, by the Anti-Money Laundering Council. The dynasties have little to worry about a talkative AMLC. Few, if any, of the impeachables have been impeached. One or two of the impeachment complaints have flourished – plus the case of VP Sara Duterte. That’s a ratio of one bitchy girl out of more than two million civil servants. Amazing!

Back to BPI. “BPI’s story is bigger than its leaders. It is also the story of the Philippines, and of the many people and institutions whose efforts have shaped our country’s development,” exulted chair JAZA at their anniversary blast.

“What allows an institution to remain relevant for 175 years?” JAZA asked. His reply to his own question: “Financial strength and the ability to adapt certainly matter. But I believe something more fundamental is at work: the trust that people place in an institution, and the responsibility of keeping that trust.”

JAZA elaborated: “We are entrusted with people’s hard-earned savings. We provide the capital that helps businesses grow. We enable the economic activity on which communities depend. These responsibilities reach well beyond any single institution. They require us to earn and protect trust, and to take a long-term view of how the economy, regulation and technology will shape our business.

“For BPI, that long-term view means safeguarding trust across generations. Each generation has inherited an institution shaped by those who came before, and each has had the same task: to preserve its credibility, stay relevant to customers, strengthen its foundations and prepare the bank for the future. This is the essence of stewardship, and it has long been central to how we think about institutions in the Ayala Group.”

“BPI’s commitment to prudence, integrity and sound judgment has been tested through war and reconstruction, political and economic transitions, financial upheavals and, more recently, a global pandemic. Through all of it, successive generations of leaders and employees upheld the trust placed in the Bank, and sustained its stability and continuity for 175 years,” assured JAZA.

Chimed in BPI president and CEO TG Limcaoco: “The reasons people turn to a bank are not so different from what they were generations ago. They want a safe place for their savings, opportunities to grow their businesses and the means to give their families a better life. Above all, they want someone they can trust as they work toward these aspirations.

“In many ways, that has been BPI’s role throughout its history: helping people turn what they hope for into what they can achieve. And while the ways we serve our customers have evolved over the years, our purpose has remained unchanged, continuing to guide the way we serve our customers today.”

TG is one of our best bankers and one of Ayala’s best CEOs or top professional managers. Out of BPI’s P2.9-trillion deposits, he deployed as loans P2.7 trillion, a 93 percent loans-to-deposits ratio that is one of the highest, if not the highest, in local banking. That’s super efficiency. That’s commitment to help those in need of money. That’s trust that borrowers will pay back. That’s boldness in banking.

The industry average L/D is a miserable barely 80 percent, or P17.28 trillion in loans out of P22.385-trillion deposits. Banks cannot entrust P4.6 trillion of their deposits to be used by their clients. If P4.6-trillion surplus deposits were deployed, it could create easily 2.5 million jobs, improve GDP growth by one percentage point. The economic slowdown could be arrested.

In banking, trust works both ways. BPI has it.  That’s relevance.

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