By Mary May A. Abellon
DIPOLOG
CITY – The Philippine Postal Savings Bank, Inc. (Postbank)
officially opened its new branch here recently with its President and Chief Executive
Officer Cesar N. Sarino and Executive Vice President Higenio Fabian gracing the
occasion.
Postbank
is a government savings bank and a government-owned and controlled corporation
created with the end in view of encouraging savings and providing access to
financial credit to the “unbanked areas” of the country.
It
is different from other government banks like the Land Bank of the Philippines
(LBP), which is primarily created to serve the agricultural sector and
Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) which was created for the industry
sector, said Sarino.
“We
are a government bank and our prime duty is public service,” Sarino told the
media men in a press conference.
“The
essence of government is service. We may have a missionary task. Second, we are
always smiling. We are going to areas that really need our help. And when we
are offering our help, it is important that we are smiling. We are more
friendly, cooperative and helpful,” he explained.
Accordingly,
37 percent of the total municipalities in the country have no bank at all. That
is why Postbank desired to expand their reach to places with no bank and those
places with only one rural bank.
Postbank
provides services like commercial banking such as loans and deposits. It also
offers microbanking services to small entrepreneurs allowing them to borrow at least
P5,000.
“We
are hoping that through you as members of the local media, you will spread the
services we have in Postbank,” Sarino said.
Meanwhile,
Postbank has 25 branches in the country and Dipolog was chosen as the center of
Postbank in Zamboanga Peninsula.
Postbank
will soon be implementing its new financing program in cooperation with Department
of Agriculture (DA) and the Zamboanga del Norte Grains Incorporated to help the
farmers in the province.
