Long-time exec named UCPB head

There’s a changing of the guard at United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB), a universal bank which is 75 percent controlled by the government, and for the first time, a new chief was handpicked from its own senior management team.

UCPB named long-time executive Higinio Macadaeg Jr. as its new president and chief executive after the five-year stint of Jeronimo Kilayko.

Prior to this appointment, Macadaeg was executive vice president and head of UCPB’s corporate and consumer banking group. He has been with UCPB for the last 13 years.

Kilayko, who has led UCPB since 2011 during which the bank was consistently profitable due to the robust growth of its core businesses, will stay on as director, the bank said in a press statement.

UCPB’s net income increased in the first nine months by 45 percent year-on-year to P2.88 billion.

“This is the first time that a UCPB executive has been appointed as president in the bank’s 53-year history and I am sure that [Macadaeg’s] vast experience will serve him in good stead in leading the bank to new directions,” Kilayko said in a press statement.

Macadaeg joined the bank in 2003 as chief credit officer and credit and supervision group head before being promoted as executive vice president, corporate and consumer banking group head and member of the board in 2011.

Macadaeg has 35 years of experience in the banking and finance sector, having held various executive positions in a number of banks. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla