Stockholder Sheena at the BPI Annual Stockholders’ Meeting 2024
~ Tuesday, April 23, 2024 Blog Post ~
I participated in the Bank of the Philippine Islands’ virtual yearly shareholders’ meeting today, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. The hour-long event that commenced at 9AM consisted of the BPI stockholders who own more than 4.1 billion shares meeting the bank’s leadership team, board of directors, and independent directors. They include Ayala Corporation Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and BPI CEO Jose Teodoro Limcaoco.
As among the stockholders who own over 4.1 billion BPI shares and a BPI Preferred client, I learned about my bank’s impressive accomplishments in the previous year. These feats comprise the successful merger of BPI and Robinsons Bank last New Year’s Day 2024, with the former being the surviving financial entity. JG Summit Holdings, which is Robinsons Bank’s parent organization, is also now considered a partner of BPI, per Mr. Ayala. He and Mr. Limcaoco shared more about the latest developments in BPI through their pre-recorded messages to the shareholders.
It was a nicely enlightening morning today, with myself learning about the strong developments in my favorite Philippine bank. I gathered that BPI continues to deliver delightful customer experiences through its sustained resilience in this post-COVID environment. The first-ever bank in the Philippines and Southeast Asia is driven by record revenue which has propelled it to deliver more profound customer engagements.
Furthermore, BPI ’s leadership team affirmed it has continued to expand its client base and boasted the highest-growing loan portfolio. Most of the bank’s 7 million deposit clients enrolled in digital platforms.
I agree that BPI has always been a high-quality financial service provider. Mr. Ayala and Mr. Limcaoco remarked that they are honored for the recent recognitions and accolades BPI received, thanks to many contributing elements including their asset quality and agency banking partners. They confirmed that the Philippine universal bank’s latest financial gains are the highest in our history.
Moreover, BPI’s executives disclosed that the bank has made its ecosystem restricting the stakeholders’ carbon footprints as a response to the global trend of financial institutions turning to “green” or eco-friendly finance. BPI is engaged with erecting green buildings and what its top management referred to as “ESG + E2 investing,” or Environmental, Social, and Governance + Equitable and Economic investing.
Since 2008, I have chosen and remained to be a BPI Preferred client because of the 172-year-old bank’s stability and dependability when it comes to keeping my funds safe and accessible. From today’s online stockholders’ meeting, I learned that BPI remains standing robustly, thanks to the steadfast trust and support of myself and the other shareholders. Thus, from the statement of Mr. Limcaoco, BPI has grown to become “customer-obsessed,” with its workers relentlessly pursuing client satisfaction. Indeed, BPI carries on its mission of elevating customer happiness.
Value creation is upheld all for consumers’ benefit, with campaigns and brands like “BPI #SaveUp” and PondoKo Savings and collaboration with JG Summit and Robinsons Retail (which includes Lawsons and Uncle John’s convenience stores), with BPI acquiring the latter’s loan book. Additionally, BPI, which has recently relished an 11-million customer increase — which is record-large and were mostly acquired digitally — has new services that have generated it with new revenue streams. Among them are the VYBE e-wallet and its rewards program and the new online banking feature that allows high-net-worth clients to have a 360-degree view of their assets. BPI has also rationalized its branches by shutting down those in saturated areas and opening up in locations where people need financial service providers the most.
With the defunct Robinsons Bank’s Legazpi Savings Bank, BPI provides public schoolteachers with the loans they need. What’s more is I get to enjoy higher peso-dividend per share which has been accorded to stockholders since 2021. BPI has been a part of my life for the past 16 years, helping me thrive and make moments that matter.
The latter portion of today’s BPI Annual Stockholders’ Meeting comprised a question-and-answer segment with Mr. Ayala and Mr. Limcaoco dispensing comprehensive and helpful replies to my fellow shareholders who submitted their queries.
With all of these significant progress in BPI, I must remark that when it comes to investing, the credit card business, paying bills, and applying for loans and insurance, BPI clients like myself can expect a high-level of enjoyment.
As BPI Stockholder Sheena, I fervently think BPI will relish more remarkable success, achievements, and significant milestones in the coming years, not just last year and the previous years. We, shareholders, and our fellow stakeholders will also carry on witnessing and enjoying the leading Philippine financial service provider’s important contributions to the country’s advancement and progress.
