A man of substance

Physically, East-West Banking Corp. president and chief executive officer Elrey Ramos was a late bloomer.

He got his growth spurt while reviewing for the accountancy board exam. Before then, he stood at four feet and 11 inches, the same height as President Macapagal-Arroyo. After the 1971 CPA exam, which he topped, he shot up to five feet and eight inches.

"There were benefits to being small. Because I could not even carry a gun, which was bigger than I was tall, I was given the best chore in ROTC, that of checking attendance," he said.

Mentally, Ramos was an overachiever. He excelled in all academic subjects that had numbers in them and graduated magna cum laude from the University of the East.

Ramos was a full scholar at UE. "The scholarship covered only tuition. It did not cover allowances for books or school supplies or for everyday living expense," said Ramos, who finished his accountancy with only one notebook, usually tucked in his back pocket whenever he played pool to raise money for his daily needs, and one book, "Advanced Accountancy". He spent his free time reading in the library.

Early years

Ramos was orphaned early. His father, a Manila fiscal, died when he was two years old and his mom, a teacher, died when he was 11. He was raised by his grandmother, living with her in Batangas, until he graduated salutatorian from high school.

He lived with an uncle in Tondo during his college years. "It was my uncle who made me take accounting. My personal career choice was engineering," he said.

Right after graduation, Ramos landed a job, which he didn’t have to apply for, with SGV & Co. He was assigned to audit banks for which he was paid P300 a month, a princely amount at that time.

One of the banks audited by SGV was the Filinvest Group, which was then recruiting people for its Family Savings Bank. Ramos landed a job as executive assistant to the president and chief operating officer, Mercedes Gotianun. Ten years after, he moved to another Gotianun-controlled bank, Insular Bank of Asia and America, as senior vice-president.

After the Gotianun family sold its banking interests, Ramos joined his wife and children in the United States. Over time, he watched over the family’s American investments. "I was asked to return to the Philippines to help put up a commercial bank after government liberalized the banking sector. Prior to East-West, the last commercial banking license was issued in 1971," he said.

Learning process

Ramos and his wife, a first vice-president at Filinvest Land, complement each other. "We are each other’s critic. We set high goals and make sure we achieve these goals. We have trained our three daughters this way, too," he said.

The eldest, Katrina, is in her third year college, taking up BS Economics at Columbia University in New York. Second daughter, Katherine, is a sophomore at the University of Southern California taking up journalism; and the third, Kara, is a sophomore at the International School in Manila.

"Like my daughters, I’m still in the process of learning. Everyday, I’m learning more about information technology and how it could improve the bank’s services," he said.

East-West now has 47 branches. By 2005, the network is projected to expand to 100 with total resources of between P45 billion and P50 billion. The bank’s current resource base is P16 billion, and growing at an average rate of 30%.

"With a lot of hard work, teamwork, and the delivery of better services to our mid-market clients, these are achievable goals. Over the long term, this bank will be a major force in the industry," he said, three years before his optional retirement at 55.