Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno announced that Malacanang has approved the merger of the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank of the Philippines.
Diokno explained that it is a global “best practice” for the state to own the largest bank, citing recent financial collapses of banks in the US and Credit Suisse’s takeover by UBS.
He also said that the merged bank will become stronger and result in cost savings.
With LandBank’s assets totaling P2.76 trillion and DBP’s at P1.04 trillion as of September 2022, the merged bank will overtake the Sy family’s banking unit, BDO Unibank Inc., in terms of assets.
According to the 2022 S&P Global Market Intelligence Report, the world’s four largest banks are owned by the Chinese government, while the remaining six in the top 10 are not government-owned.
