Equitable PCI Bank - Equitable PCI Bank History

Equitable PCI Bank History

The shares of the Lopez and Gokongwei Families were sold to the SSS and GSIS which acquired 78% of PCI Bank shares that were bought by the Go-Led Equitable Banking Corporation and they merged in 1999 and was approved by the Bangko Sentral and other agencies that had created the Third Largest Philippine Bank with Equitable as the survivor of the merger and the name Equitable PCI Bank was adopted. With Head offices at The former PCI Bank Towers I&II that were renamed to the Equitable PCI Bank Towers I&II and the Equitable Banking Corporation Binondo Center and at the Equitable Banking Corporation Tower also in Makati.. The Bank also played in a very important role in the impeachement trial of the former president Joseph Estrada of which the bank produced Fifteen Witnesses(Along with nine banks namely Citibank, Philippine Savings Bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Security Bank, Land Bank of the Philippines, Urban Bank, Export and Industry Bank, United Asia Bank and Keppel Bank) to prove that the 'Jose Velarde' account was owned the President Estrada(which also investment on the merger of the Equitable Banking Corporation and then the Lopez-Gokongwei led Philippine Commercial International Bank). On August 5, 2005, the SM Group of Companies and Banco de Oro Universal Bank announced that they have purchased a 24.76% stake of Equitable PCI from the Go family(Equitable Banking Corporation), the family that founded the bank, along with a 10% stake in Equitable CardNetwork. Subsequent acquisitions by Banco de Oro enabled it to gain a 34% share in the bank.

On January 6, 2006, Banco de Oro Universal Bank submitted a merger offer to the bank - with Banco de Oro as the surviving entity. Under the proposed offer, Banco de Oro will swap 1.6 of its shares for every 1 share of Equitable-PCI(Merger occurred but BDO Shareholders were to swap 1.8 BDO shares for every EPCI Share) . As a second option, Banco de Oro also offered to base the swap ratio on the book values of both banks to be assessed by an independent accounting firm using International Accounting Standards. With the success of this merger, Banco de Oro became the second largest bank with assets of P613 billion, just next to current industry leader, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company with assets of more than P641.5 billion. The merger demoted the Bank of the Philippine Islands down to third place with P582 billion in assets. BDO has since surpassed Metrobank in asset, loan and deposit sizes to become the largest lender in the Philippines.