Salmon Bank to apply for advanced EPFS license in July
According to Salmon co-founder Raffy Montemayor, the Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa (Laguna) or Salmon Bank is set to apply for the advanced EPFS license by July in a bid to boost its daily banking products.
'That one requires an advanced EPFS license, so we're in the process of preparing for that… We're just about to put it together. By next month we would want to apply for the advanced EPFS so that we can build towards a daily banking suite of products,' he told GMA News Online in an interview.
'Daily banking for us is about the suite of products that allows customers to meet their daily needs like pay their bills, transfer to other banks and e-wallets, save. All these products together, being able to do that through our mobile app, that's what we're focused on,' he added.
Under BSP Circular 1033, an advanced EPFS allows supervised financial institutions to offer fund transfers and other transactions beyond primary services such as account balance inquiries, that are included in the basic EPFS license.
Aside from the advanced EPFS license, Salmon Bank is also looking to upgrade its license into a thrift bank, coinciding with its $150-million Nordic bond framework agreement. It recently raised $88 million from the latest fundraising round which includes $60 million in bonds.
'The equity of the bank as of now is P680 million which already meets the minimum requirements for a thrift bank, but there's a lot more to do in terms of putting all the board committees, the frameworks policies, the processes in place to give the BSP confidence that we are ready to make that come through,' Montemayor said.
'It's something that we hope to be able to do within the next year, subject of course to BSP approval. It really depends on the readiness of the BSP to say 'You guys are good',' he added.
Moving forward, Montemayor said Salmon is looking to put up three more branches in the next year, complementing the two it already has in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and Bacoor, Cavite. The bank is now in the process of negotiating with potential landlords.
'Our intention is to open one in BGC, one in Cebu, and one in CDO (Cagayan de Oro.) We're going through the process for the branch application. It takes time on our side also to be ready, we want to provide a branch experience that is unlike that you would get from a traditional bank, so it takes time to put together such an experience,' he said.
Salmon last year said it targets to grow its loan portfolio to $2 billion in the next three to five years, as it seeks to expand its customer base by catering to what it calls the 'neglected' market and stepping into other countries in Southeast Asia. It ended 2024 with a P1.2-billion loan portfolio. —RF, GMA Integrated News
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