THE COUNTRY’S leading lender Banco de Oro Unibank has formed a banking alliance with Japan’s 10th largest bank, Shizuoka Bank Ltd., in a bid to widen its Japanese client base.
Based on a memorandum of understanding signed between BDO and Shizuoka on Wednesday, the local bank will service the banking requirements of the latter’s Japanese clients which may expand operations in the Philippines.
Shizuoka sees some of its small and medium enterprise (SME) clients interested in investing in the Philippines. Given BDO’s strong foothold across all markets, Shizuoka believes that the Sy family-led BDO “has the strongest capability to provide its clients the products and services suitable to their needs,” BDO disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Shizuoka is the 10th Japanese bank to team up with BDO to date. Other banks like Aozora Bank have set up alliances independently while others have aligned under the banner of Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
In Japan, Shizuoka currently operates 174 branches and 25 sub-branches while it has three overseas branches located in Los Angeles, New York and Hong Kong. It also has two representative offices in Shanghai and Singapore as well as a subsidiary in Brussels.