On August 3, 2010, a joint program of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) called the Strengthening Program for Rural Banks (SPRB) was launched. The SPRB is intended to encourage mergers and consolidations among rural banks to further strengthen the rural banking system. The program runs for a period of two (2) years.

Under the SPRB, merging or consolidating banks can avail of the PDIC financial assistance and certain regulatory reliefs by BSP pursuant to attached SPRB Implementing Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) and the BSP Guidelines on the Grant of Regulatory Relief under the SPRB.

To qualify under the program, the merging or consolidating bank should involve an eligible rural bank (RB) and an eligible strategic third party investor (STPI) which should also be a rural bank. Both the eligible RB and eligible STPI should meet that criteria set in the Guidelines.

Applications under the SPRB should be addressed to PDIC, and should be accompanied by the following documents:

1. duly accomplished application form (SPRB Form No. 1);

2. request for regulatory relief addressed to BSP in accordance with the “BSP Guidelines on the Grant of Regulatory Relief under the SPRB”, attached herewith as Annex “A” of the Guidelines, and

3. documentary requirements as listed in Annex “B” of the Guidelines.

You may send your application to:

For further inquiries, please contact the SPRB Lane at telephone no. (02) 813-3673, mobile nos. 0915-5212235; 0915-5212236 or you may send email to sprb@pdic.gov.ph .

We look forward to your support and/or participation in this program.

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