Security Bank opens 300th branch in countryside expansion

Local banking giant Security Bank Corp. has breached the 300th milestone in its branch network in line with its thrust to expand its retail banking business nationwide.

The 300th branch was recently inaugurated in San Jose, Nueva Ecija, in Central Luzon as the bank sought to extend its financial services to the countryside.

The latest branch is seen to promote entrepreneurship and help widen business opportunities for local agribusinesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

“As a bank, we believe that we have a role to play in countryside development. Economic growth must be felt both in the highly urbanized centers, and in the provincial areas. We are looking forward to working with local agribusinesses and the SME sector, since these sectors are part of the backbone of our economy and create many jobs locally,” Security Bank president and chief executive Alfonso Salcedo Jr. said in a press statement.

Salcedo—who has expertise in both corporate and consumer banking as former head of Bank of the Philippine Islands’ corporate banking unit and prior to that, as head of BPI Family Bank—joined Security Bank in 2015.

By hiring a new executive with Salcedo’s background, Security Bank boosted the execution of a new strategy hatched in 2014 to make retail banking a formidable new pillar. This is while continuing to grow the two other segments that had catapulted the bank from being a mid-sized institution into one of the country’s largest banks: wholesale lending and treasury.

Security Bank has since then been investing more in technology and branch network expansion.