Overseas Filipino Bank to be launched Jan. 18


By TED CORDERO, GMA News
The Overseas Filipino Bank (OFB) is set to be launched on Thursday, January 18, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Wednesday.
PPSB will be converted to OFB that will cater to the need of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
According to the DOF, the OFB will be launched on Thursday afternoon at the PostBank Center, Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila.

“It’s just a matter of the administrative integration of the bank. It’s an administrative thing and all the approvals have been cleared away for the acquisition,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.

“You know, we are just fulfilling his (President Rodrigo Duterte’s) campaign promise one by one. First, tax reform, then this new bank,” he added.
Dominguez said that besides fulfilling a campaign promise, the conversion of PPSB into OFB also saved the former from bankruptcy.
The OFB will become a subsidiary of LandBank, according to the Finance chief.

He said the DOF and LandBank are planning to secure licenses in other countries with large concentrations of overseas Filipinos so the bank can provide financial advisory services to the Filipino communities in these areas.

In October last year, Duterte released Executive Order No. 44, approving LandBank's acquisition of PPSB as its subsidiary, which will be owned 30 percent by OFWs.

Under the EO 44, the Philippine Postal Corporation and the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) were ordered to transfer their PPSB shares to LandBank at zero value.

The order further stated that the former PPSB will be converted into the "Overseas Filipino Bank,” which will be a “policy bank dedicated to provide financial products and services tailored to the requirement of overseas Filipinos" and will focus on delivering "quality and efficient foreign remittance services.”

The OFB was previously conceptualized as a bank catering exclusively to the needs of OFWs but was later expanded by Dominguez to provide services to all foreign-based Filipinos to make it more inclusive, in keeping with the government’s financial inclusion agenda.
He said a key feature of the OFB will be its provision of remittance service for OFWs and a loan program for Filipinos planning to return to the country to start businesses or build their homes.

The LandBank and the BTr are also exploring ways of mobilizing the savings of overseas-based Filipinos for them to invest in the country’s capital markets, Dominguez said. —KBK, GMA News

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