Unionbank taps Citibank exec as new COO following takeover

Union Bank of the Philippines has hired former Citigroup senior executive Manish Chawla as its chief operations officer as the Aboitiz-led lender moves to fully integrate assets of Citi Philippines after a P72-billion takeover deal last year.

Chawla was hired effective July 1 with the rank of executive vice president under the office of the chief technology and operations officer.

He is an industry veteran with about 20 years of experience handling various positions in the core consumer operations of Citibank.

Chawla was the former site head of Citigroup Business Process Solutions Pte. Ltd.

Before this, he served as head of operations and technology at Citibank Philippines from June 2019 to Dec. 2022.

Chawla has a master’s degree in finance and control from the Kurukshetra University in India.

Last August, UnionBank announced that it had completed the acquisition of Citi’s Philippine consumer banking business.

UnionBank also committed to hiring the roughly 1,500 employees of Citi Philippines. In an earlier advisory to customers, the lender said the full integration between UnionBank and Citi would be completed by the middle of 2023.

UnionBank, part of the family’s flagship conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., ended the first three months of 2023 with a net income of P3.4 billion. Net revenues during the period also jumped 57 percent to P16.1 billion.

—Miguel R. Camus INQ