MANILA -- The merger of the Bank of the Philippine Islands and Robinsons Bank could be completed in early 2024 pending regulator approvals, an official said on Tuesday, while assuring employees of the Gokongwei-led bank that they would be absorbed.

• BPI announces planned merger with Gokongwei-led Robinsons Bank
• BPI-Robinsons merger may take effect earlier than anticipated

At the sidelines of BPI's 172nd anniversary media roundtable, BPI President TG Limcaoco said the merger could be enforced as early as the first business day in 2024.

The bank is just waiting for the approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, he said.

"We hope the approvals will come soon. And that we met with the Gokongwei Group [decided] that merger takes place at the first business day of the quarter following when we get the approval," Limcaoco said.

The BPI chief added that they are now discussing branch optimization while adding that employees would be absorbed.

"We will take everyone on board," Limcaoco said.

"We continue to work as to which branches will remain, which BPI branch may close, which BPI branches will remain open, which Robinsons branches will close, which ones will remain open," he added.

BPI and the Gokongwei Group's Robinsons Bank started the merger process this year, with BPI as the surviving entity. The Gokongwei Group also has a licensed digital bank called GoTyme.

• GoTyme eyes hitting 1 million customers by August

Limcaoco also said BPI hopes to reach 50 million customers by 2027.

"Our ambitious goal is to put 50 million customers, 50 million people on our platform," Limcaoco said.

"We will bring them in through the traditional channels, the branches and traditional products like deposits, credit cards and through usual channels. We're making a big push to acquire digitally," he added.

The BPI chief explained that they would count not just depositors, but everyone who uses a BPI product such as loans, credit card and more.

The bank also targets all segments from the low income to the high income bracket.

Several products and services are being updated to make it easier for everyone to do a bank transaction. Limcaoco added that this is also one of the reasons why they made payment transactions free for P1,000 below.

BPI will also formally launch its payments and rewards app Vybe in October. This will also help bring in more customers to the BPI ecosystem.

For now, the bank is seeing growth in all its business units such as credit cards, loans and wealth management. Limcaoco is confident the bank will continue to grow this year and the next.

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