Right Choice Capital, a Singapore-based financial services group, announced that it secured approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to proceed with its acquisition of Rural Bank of San Luis (Pampanga).
The approval from the central bank marks the first step in Right Choice Capital’s move to venture into the country’s digital banking space. The announcement did not disclose the financial details of the acquisition.
Rural Bank of San Luis (Pampanga) is a fully licensed rural bank in Pampanga with a 50-year successful operating history. It is licensed by the central bank for savings, time deposits, and lending to its MSME and consumer customer base.
Right Choice Capital CEO and founder Kodi Kodrowski said the overall plan is to expand the bank with a fully digital product range while retaining its personalized, relationship-driven core business for MSME and individual customers.
“The acquisition of RBSL is a key element in our group’s rapid expansion and diversification strategy,” Kodrowski added. “This is all part of building out a fully diversified financial services group with a complete range of services for the still underserved SME, MSME, and consumer market sectors in the region”.
The Philippines currently has six licensed digital banks – UnionDigital Bank, GoTyme Bank Corporation, Tonik Digital Bank, Maya Bank, Overseas Filipino Bank, and UNObank.
The BSP classifies digital banks as those that offer financial products and services that are processed end-to-end through a digital platform and/or electronic channels with no physical branches.
Aside from its acquisition of Rural Bank of San Luis, Right Choice said it is currently negotiating another bank acquisition. It did not provide further details though.
To finance its expansion and acquisition, Rapid Choice said it is in the market to raise $10 million in Series A funding round.
“We expect that there will be significant investor and strategic partner upside as we rapidly grow the business into a much larger FinServices & Banking Group during these next few years, with an accelerated start to 2023,” Kodrowski said.
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