Citibank will merge its Philippine thrift bank CitiSavings and personal loans subsidiary CitiFinancial in early February, Citi country manager Mark Jones said Thursday.

The 36-branch CitiSavings will be the surviving entity. It will absorb all loan accounts of the 15-branch CitiFinancial and will have total assets of P11.25 billion, Jones said.

The new management structure will be finalized by Feb. 4, he said.

Citibank entered the Philippine thrift bank industry when it bought the 36-branch Insular Savings Bank in March 2005. It acquired CitiFinancial about seven years ago.

Because CitiFinancial is not a bank, Citisavings cannot operate its 15 branches right away.

Jones said Citibank would build up its retail banking business by introducing new deposit products and go into new areas, like mortgage financing. Citi had launched an auto financing product in November.

On consumer lending, Jones said Citi started changing the targeted business mix to get more higher-income clients.

He also said the bank?scredit card business showed good growth in December.

?The Philippine economy seems to be sound,? Jones said. Economic policies adopted in previous years ?have put the country in good standing,? he said. Edited by INQUIRER.net