Union Bank COO bowing out

Union Bank of the Philippines has announced the retirement by yearend of its 68-year-old president and chief operating officer Victor Valdepeñas, which is expected to trigger changes at the top of the Aboitiz-led institution.

Edwin Bautista, 53, currently senior executive vice president of the bank, will take over the post of Valdepeñas, who will be bowing out after an 18-year tenure, said Justo Ortiz, bank chair and chief executive officer.

Ortiz said during Union Bank’s stockholders’ meeting on Friday that he heard the news “with mixed emotion.” He credited Valdepeñas for the bank’s strong performance over the last two decades.

Before Valdepeñas joined the bank two decades ago, it had less than P20 billion in assets and an annual income of less than P200 million. Now, it is a P445-billion institution in terms of resources, and is on track to reach at least P8.7 billion in net profit this year compared to P8.4 billion last year.

“We are proud that over these last two decades, we were able to transform Union Bank into one of the most relevant and significant banks in today’s banking world,” Valdepeñas said in his last address to stockholders.

The tasks previously discharged by the office of the president would soon be spread out to the next three most senior officials of the bank. Eugene Acevedo, 50, was named chair of City Savings Bank, Union Bank’s thrift bank arm, while Jose Roberto Reyes, 55, would become chief finance officer.

Valdepeñas, an economist and a veteran of the Treasury, said the bank would be “decentralized” in terms of leadership from hereon.

Reyes is currently senior executive vice president for treasury, while Acevedo is senior executive vice president handling retail and corporate banking centers.

Incoming president Bautista is currently the head of the transaction banking, commercial banking and channel management centers of the bank.   Doris Dumlao-Abadilla