Anchor Savings Bank on lookout for small bank

Anchor Savings Bank (ASB), owned by the Knights of Columbus, is exploring the possibility of acquiring small rural or thrift banks located in Metro Manila, ASB president Evangeline Escobillo said over the weekend.

"We have plans of buying small banks. Actually, we just had a meeting with a very successful group that has consolidated a certain number of rural banks. The idea is to have inputs from them, on how they were able to do it successfully," he said.

Escobillo said they are coordinating with Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to pursue this plan.

"We are asking them if they could help us identify rural banks or small thrift banks subject to buy- in or buy out. We are looking for a good bank, not so big, very manageable, strategically located, and people in the bank must be good," he said.

At present, ASB's capital stands at P350 million. It has only three branches located in Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao.

"We would want to have more branches in Manila. That is why we want to buy banks that are located here," he said.

Their plan to acquire Manila-based small banks is also in line with their new Grameen-type lending program with the help of the People Credit Finance Corp. (PCFC).

"One of the important undertakings that we are pushing is lending to the poor. It's a Grameen lending which a system we copied from Bangladesh. Grameen types being funded by PCFC," she said.