Amsterdam-based ABN Amro Bank has reached an agreement with a Philippine investment group to acquire a majority stake in Great Pacific Savings Bank, formerly known as BA Savings Bank.
The acquisition, announced Monday, is the second in Southeast Asia for ABN Amro, which recently bought a bank in Thailand.
Great Pacific has 25 branches and approximately $142 million of assets, according to a statement released by ABN Amro.
BankAmerica Corp. held a 39% stake in the Philippine bank until June last year. It sold its holding as part of a cutback in retail banking operations across Asia.
The sale left Citigroup Inc. as the only U.S. bank with retail banking operations in the Philippines.
Citigroup, the largest foreign bank and seventh largest commercial bank in the Philippines according to U.S. Treasury data, operates five branches in the country.
Both BankAmerica and Chase Manhattan Corp. have corporate banking branches there, while five other U.S. banks operate offshore banking units that are not allowed to conduct business in Philippine pesos. U.S. banks hold around 7% of some $70 billion in total Philippine banking assets.
ABN Amro currently holds a restricted offshore license in the Philippines. The bank said in a release that the acquisition will allow it to establish a foothold in the domestic Philippine banking market, expand into peso-denominated businesses, and engage in consumer banking.
