Plantersbank embarks on expansion

PLANTERS Development Bank (Plantersbank) has strengthened its presence in key markets by turning aggressive in its expansion with the goal of increasing its loan exposures as well as other portfolios.

Gary Vargas, Consumer Banking Group head of the bank, said the expansion aggressiveness is part of the bank's re-engineering as it has ventured into opening more loan windows together with setting up more branches.

Vargas, who was in Cebu recently during the Cebu Business Month, said that among the products that it has gone into were providing loans for housing, automobile, personal as well big loans for companies who wanted to expand their businesses.

The bank, whose main clients are small and medium enterprises, is also planning to open 10 more branches this year with five of the areas already identified. The bank is set to open branches in Bacolod, Vigan, Makati, Tuguegarao and Mandaluyong.

Vargas added that other areas being considered for branching are Naga City in Bicol, Isabela City in Cagayan Valley and other areas in Metro Manila.

He said that for the bank to open a branch, it needs to invest about P8 million for the branch and that the total investment will reach to about P80 million.

About two years ago, officials of the 70-branch bank said they will also look at whether they can expand in key cities in the Visayas and Mindanao areas.

They said the need to expand was intended to anticipate the growing market, particularly the countryside as the bank wanted to provide better access to its main clients, the small and medium enterprices.

With assets of about P50 billion, Plantersbank is considered among the largest commercial banks offering better lending windows for small and medium enterprises and in the Top 250 of the country's 1,000 biggest corporations.

A consistent recipient of global and national awards, the bank received the Presidential Citation for MSME Development in 2009.
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