BDO Unibank

BDO Unibank, commonly known as Banco de Oro, is a universal bank and the largest bank in the Philippines by assets, which amounted to ₱4,603,970 million as of 2024. It is part of SM Group, the largest Filipino conglomerate. BDO has over 1700 branches nationwide and 16 international offices to service clients abroad. In 2023 it was recognized as the best bank in the Philippines by 3 different financial award organizations.  

BDO Unibank’s Products

As a universal bank, BDO offers full service to its clients. The list of products they have available includes:

• Accounts: Checking, savings, and time deposit accounts in pesos and US dollars. Most of these accounts are designed to help clients save and grow their money, as even the Smart Checking account has an interest rate. 

• Cards: BDO offers a long list of credit cards from MasterCard, Visa, American Express, JCB, Union Pay, and Diners Club. They also offer a debit card and two special cards, BDO Pay and Rewards. 

• Loans: BOD has auto, mortgage, personal, and multipurpose loans available for clients. The personal loan can be up to ₱2,000,000, and they have both secured and unsecured options. 

• Insurance: The offer list covers life insurance, as well as travel, pet, medical, and car insurance. 

• Investment: With BOD clients can invest in bonds, stocks, and funds, and there is an Easy Investment product to help them invest with only ₱1,000 a month. 

• Remittance: These products are meant to help Filipinos abroad send money back to their family. It includes a special savings account for overseas families. 

• Assets for Sale: BDO has a variety of homes and vehicles they get as a result of defaulted secured loans. On their website, these assets are available for purchase by clients.

BDO Unibank’s History

BDO Unibank was established in 1968 as Acme Savings Bank. It started as a “thrift bank”, an institution specializing in taking savings deposits and making loans. In 1976 it was acquired by the SM Investments Corporation, commonly known as SM Group, and its name was changed to Banco de Oro Savings and Mortgage Bank. 

In 1994 it was transformed into a commercial bank and the name was changed again to Banco de Oro Commercial Bank. Then, in 1996, it became a universal bank and adopted the name Banco de Oro Universal Bank. 

In 1997 it started offering insurance services for the first time via the creation of the subsidiary BDO Insurance Brokers and in later years created partnerships with insurance and life assurance companies to expand and improve the service. 

The bank we see today is the result of a merger between Banco de Oro Universal Bank and Equitable PCI Bank, one of the largest banks in the Philippines at the time. This merger happened in 2006, and the resulting bank was initially known as Banco de Oro-EPCI, though it didn’t take long for the name to be changed to Banco de Oro Unibank, a shortened version of the one it had before the merger. In 2010 the name changed one last time to BDO Unibank, its current one.