MANILA – Rizal Commercial Banking Corp is regaining ground, as it recovered from the fallout of a $81 million (P4.1 billion) money laundering caper, its president said Friday.

The Yuchengco-controlled lender fell to 8th from 5th over all but deposit levels are now back to normal, RCBC President Eugene Acevedo said in an exclusive interview with ANC’s The Boss, his first since his appointment.

"The main impact of that was we lost a bit of deposits in the first year but I'm happy to report that the levels are back to normal in fact our deposits have been growing. What we really need to do now is go back and what we’ve missed in the last 3 years," Acevedo said.

"The objective is, really to make sure that we don’t see other banks overtaking us again. We’re hoping that in the next 3 to 5 years, we’ll be able to fight our way back to no. 5," he added.

Its consumer loan business helped offset losses. It's credit card business grew 31 percent, while its auto loans and home loans grew from 14 to 17 percent, he said.

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"In the last 6 months I’ve spent time with the RCBC bankers and asked them how they felt…The question I asked was ‘Do you have enough fight left in you’ and the answer was, at least after 6 months, was a resounding ‘yes.’ They’re in the mood to run again and we hope to give our competitor banks some excitement," Acevedo said.

“Now we need to make sure that all other engines will be able to run at the usual speed they used to be running at,” he said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of the merger between RCBC and RCBC Savings Bank will also help grow its consumer loan business, he said.

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RCBC is also using tools such as data analytics to improve the customer experience. It aims to tap the rising middle class by doubling the number of its sales staff to 1,500 from 750 over the next 2 to 3 years, he said.

“All the things we do, using data, using digital tools will enable us to tighten the process, release more headcount and use that headcount to go after more businesses,” Acevedo said.