State-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has opened its first branch in the island province of Guimaras to further increase the bank’s customer touchpoints in remote yet high-growth potential areas of the country, a top official said.
DBP President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel G. Herbosa said that the newly- opened branch, in the town of Buenavista, would provide enhanced banking convenience and improved access to the bank’s full range of offerings including deposit and investment products, transfer and remittance services, loan programs, among others.
“DBP’s presence in Guimaras is a testament to the bank’s commitment to support the National Government’s intensified financial inclusion drive and national development goals,” Herbosa said.
DBP is the fifth largest bank in the country in terms of assets and has a branch network of 131 branches and 12 branch-lite units situated mostly in underserved and remote areas of the country.
Guimaras is located in the southeast and northwest portions of Panay and Negros Islands respectively in the Western Visayas region and has an estimated population of over 187,000 based on latest government data. It is comprised of five municipalities, with the capital Jordan and Buenavista as the major economic and administrative centers in the province, and main gateways of Guimaras from Iloilo.
The opening of DBP’s Buenavista branch is a step towards establishing more institutional collaborations with both public and private institutions in this part of the Visayas, Herbosa added.