RCBC hikes offshore borrowings to $3 billion

MANILA, Philippines — Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) wants to raise more funds from the offshore debt market by increasing the size of its medium term note program to $3 billion from $2 billion.

Ma. Christina Alvarez, first senior vice president and corporate information officer at RCBC, said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) the bank’s board of directors approved the increase in the program size during its regular meeting last Monday.

Proceeds of the offshore borrowings will be used to finance the bank’s balance sheet growth particularly for loans and investment securities.

The country’s 9th largest lender in terms of assets has regularly been updating its medium term note program. It launched a $1 billion offshore fund raising program in 2011 that was eventually doubled to $2 billion in January 2018.

Of the total amount, it raised $275 million in January 2012 followed by $243 million in January and another $320 million in October 2015, $300 million in March and $150 million in April 2018 and another $300 million via the issuance of sustainability bonds last September.

The bank, founded by the late taipan Alfonso Yuchengco, has also decided to more than triple its bond and commercial paper program to P100 billion from only P30 billion to further strengthen its regulatory liquidity ratios.

RCBC raised P30.5 billion last year through the issuance of bonds.

It raised P15 billion via the issuance of the first peso-denominated Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) green bonds last January and another P8 billion from the maiden ASEAN sustainability bonds issued last June.

It also issued P7.5 billion worth of fixed rate bonds due 2022 last November.

Meanwhile, Alvarez also told the PSE the bank also approved the establishment of a wholly owned rural bank with electronic payment and financial services as well as cloud-based core banking licenses from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The unit, Alvarez explained, would engage in purely digital banking business in the country subject to the approvals of regulatory agencies led by the BSP and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).