In his father’s footsteps

Paul Arnaldo Favila, who was appointed last month as Citi Philippines CEO and country head, has finally stepped out of the shadow of his well-known father, current Monetary Board member Peter S. Favila.

Peter has been a fixture in the local banking community – initially among the fair-haired and good-looking bankers under the wing of Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co.’s late chairman and taipan George Ty – heading three different banking institutions that included Security Bank, Philippine National Bank and Allied Bank during his banking career.

Peter’s name continues to pop up in banking circles as among the possible candidates to succeed current Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Felipe Medalla, who is serving the remaining unexpired term of the late BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla.

With such big shoes to fill, Paul has quietly nurtured a 29-year career as a Citibanker, a career path he reveals he did not initially want to take to differentiate himself from his father. He focused on a marketing career, but early on realized that he wanted after all to pursue a banking career, choosing a foreign bank, Citibank.

Paul joined Citibank in 1993 as an assistant portfolio manager for Citibank Global Asset Management. From there, he assumed various roles in Citi Markets ranging from fixed income sales, equity derivatives sales and structuring, and FXLM trading. Prior to assuming responsibility for Citibank Manila’s trading business in 2004, he was part of the first batch of the Citibank Asian Tiger Program. As part of the program, Paul spent time in the Singapore hub and Malaysia dealing rooms before heading back to Manila to assume leadership of the trading business, which he ran for 10 years up to 2014.

He has been head of markets for Citi Philippines since 2015. At the same time, he had responsibility over the country’s securities services business until 2021. He is currently in charge of Citi’s FX, rates, commodities and structured solutions businesses in the Philippines. He is also the country treasurer, with oversight of the whole Philippine franchise. He is also a member of the Asia Pacific Markets Operating Committee.

Paul values his training as a Citibanker, acknowledging the mentoring he received from his former colleagues, Augusto “Toti” Bengzon, now the chief financial officer of Ayala Land; Eugene Acevedo, president and CEO of RCBC; and Arcus Fernando, an independent director of Metrobank.

About two weeks before the formal March 1 announcement from Citi about Paul’s appointment as their new Philippine country head, he had attended the BSP’s Annual Bankers’ Night, acting so cool and collected on the cusp of receiving formal confirmation of his appointment, and willing to be acknowledged merely as Peter’s son.

Paul reveals that even when he finally got the call of his appointment a couple of days after the BSP event, he still could not say anything until New York made the formal announcement. However, his first call upon receiving the news was to his father and mother.

Paul’s Citi appointment, in fact, he admits now poses a possible conflict of interest for his father amidst talk that Peter may still be in the running for the top BSP post. Paul does not relish the idea of his father entertaining a further stint in the BSP, and that he would dissuade his father from accepting if such an offer is made because he would come under more scrutiny and would even have to avoid visiting Peter alone at the central bank if his father is offered the BSP post.

Paul suggested that a good contender for the BSP post if Medalla is not reappointed would be MB member Eli Remolona, who has had international banking experience.

He would prefer that his father retires and just focus on traveling and doting on his grandchildren. With his only sister living in the US, Paul has accepted the responsibility of taking care of his father and mother in their golden years. In fact, he reveals that he already helps Peter out with regards to adapting to the digital technology.

Favila (Left) and Navarro (Right)

Visa’s family man

Visa has a new country manager, Jeffrey Navarro, who is pleasantly a true-blue family guy. What is refreshing about Jeff is that in his varied professional career, he has always prioritized his family and keeps them firmly rooted in the Philippines.

With his wife running a successful business, three daughters, a son and five fur babies, Jeff values spending his time with his family and firmly planting their roots in the Philippines rather than uprooting them and forcing them to live an expatriate family existence.

Although his family was strongly educated in the sciences – his mother trained as a chemist and his father comes from a family of doctors – his path led him to seek an education in economics due to financial considerations of a long medical training.

“The dream was really to become a doctor,” Jeff admits, but his mother was worried about the financial burden of a long medical education and having to educate a brood of six, with Jeff being the eldest.

Educated in Ateneo, where coincidentally he was the batchmate of Paul Favila, his first job after graduating cum laude was in Andersen Consulting, where he stayed for three and a half years and learned the discipline of business management and methodology. He then moved to Royal Dutch Shell, where he stayed for 11 years, and gained more experience in actual business marketing. Since his mom is an entrepreneur, he wanted to learn skills that would eventually help him when he retires and goes into business on his own.

As his career flourished in Shell, however, he had to reckon with the choice that in order to advance, he would have to accept an overseas posting. However, Jeff revealed that he is a person that always wants to stay in the Philippines and that “closeness to family is very important.”

So, Jeff accepted an offer to join telco Smart in 2009 where he took on the task of helping the shift to digital smart money, but after a short three-and-a-half years, he was again ready to learn more about the financial services sector with Western Union where he eventually stayed for a lengthy 10 years.

Although he became the regional head for Malaysia, Jeff still insisted on remaining based in Manila to be near his family. Aside from being a devoted family man, Jeff is also a deeply religious man who finds purpose in what he does and which then makes what he does not seem like work.

His new role in Visa is as country manager for the Philippines and Guam. He will be responsible for overseeing and leading all aspects of Visa’s business operations.