Malaya 
Business 
January 03, 2013 


EASTWEST Banking Corporation, one of the fastestgrowing banks in the country, yesterday announced that its branches had grown to 245 last year, more than double the previous year's network of 122.

EastWest, a subsidiary of the Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), the publicly listed holding company of the Filinvest Group, said that it opened 123 new branches last year in different areas in Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

"EastWest's commitment to its shareholders was to open new stores around the country at a rapid pace, which it has fervently pursued," the bank said.

EastWest CEO Tony Moncupa, in an earlier interview, said that the bank's synergy at the moment is directed towards its expansion.

EastWest will push an aggressive branch expansion program, aiming to grow its network to 350 branches by 2014, Moncupa said.

"We plan to build 100 more this year," he added.

Last February 13, EastWest posted another milestone when it simultaneously opened 22 branches on the same day.

He said the bank will spend at least P2 billion for the branch expansion program, considering that each branch costs P7 million to P8 million depending on the size and location.

He stressed that the bank is investing in personnel development and training to support its growing client base and provide better customer services.

The bank is also upgrading its information and technology infrastructure to support more transactions.

Aside from its store network growth, initial public offering and unibank license, the bank posted other notable developments last year.

Last November, EastWest was included in the MSCI Global Small Cap indices list. MSCI is a trusted and leading provider of investment decision support tools to investors globally, including asset managers, banks, hedge funds and pension funds.

The MSCI Small Cap Index measures the equity performance of smallcap stocks in developed and emerging markets around the world.

In October 2012, EastWest was named by The Asian Banker as the sixth strongest bank in the Philippines.

The Asian Banker, a multinational company that provides business intelligence on the financial services industry, scored banks in the Philippines based on scale, balance sheet growth, risk profile, profitability, asset quality and liquidity.

In the same month, EastWest announced its offering of P5 billion worth of LongTerm Negotiable Certificates of Time Deposit (LTNCD) that will mature in five years.

The first tranche totaling PI .5 billion was issued in November.

Earlier, the bank disclosed that its net income for the first nine months of the year grew 12 percent to PI.36 billion as against net income for the same period last year.