The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and other regulators such as the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., Securities and Exchange Commission, Cooperative Development Authority and the Philippine Competition Commission signed on Friday a multi-agency agreement to streamline the merger, consolidation and acquisition process among banks.
The agreement was signed by BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno, PDIC president and chief executive Roberto Tan, SEC chairman Emilio Aquino, CDA chairman Joseph Encabo and PCC chairman Arsenio Balisacan in a virtual ceremony.
Initiated by the PDIC, the multi-agency project, the first of its kind among financial regulators, aims to harmonize the requirements and synchronize the timelines in the processing of merger, consolidation and acquisition proposals of banks.
The project, in support of the government’s thrust of promoting ease of doing business, was commended by the Anti-Red Tape Authority in March 2020.
The memorandum of agreement on the procedures for applications for mergers, consolidations and acquisition of banks is the culmination of the MCA project, which is a collaboration of financial regulators involved in the processing of MCA proposals of banks.
The agreement embodies the responsibilities and commitments of each of the regulators on the simplified requirements and streamlined procedures and timelines in processing of MCA applications.
The regulators agreed on a harmonized list of requirements for MCA proposals of banks which will effectively cut in half the number of documentary requirements from 58 to only 30.
The synchronized timelines and the elimination of duplicate functions among the concerned agencies will also reduce the total processing time of MCA proposals from an average of about 160 business days to only 55.
The implementing guidelines on the procedures for MCA applications will subsequently be issued via a joint circular by the partner-agencies.