Bank of the Philippine Islands, BPI Family merger gets BSP OK

The planned merger between Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) with its wholly-owned thrift bank subsidiary BPI Family Savings Bank (BFSB) has obtained the approval of monetary authorities.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, BPI said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' (BSP) Monetary Board approved its merger with BFSB on September 30, 2021.

The Monetary Board approved the merger with BPI as the surviving entity.

The bank announced its plans to merge with its thrift banking arm in January, targeting to complete the transaction within the year. 

“The merger of BPI and BFSB will create considerable value to the customers, employees and shareholders of the two entities,” BPI said.

“The customers of the combined BPI and BFSB will have access to all the products, via all the digital and physical channels, of both entities. The employees of the merged entity will have the ability to work across a larger, more varied bank; and potential synergies will create shareholder value,” the bank said.

The merger between BPI and BFSB was approved by BPI board of directors on January 20, 2021. The planned merger also secured the approval of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) on July 6, 2021.

“Next steps include the regulatory filings with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange),” BPI said.

The Ayala-led bank said that BFSBI is not listed on the PSE and is a 100% subsidiary of BPI, “the basis of the exchange is BFSB's net asset value as of December 31, 2020 and BPI share prices as of December 29, 2020.”

“The procedure for determining the number of BPI shares that will be issued pursuant to the merger shall be determined using the net asset value of BFSBI as of December 31, 2020 as reflected in the audited financial statements and BPI's share price as of December 29, 2020,” BPI said. —KG, GMA News