MANILA, Philippines — Security Bank Corp. is making a calculated bet on a different kind of banking growth: instead of treating wealthy individuals, entrepreneurs and corporations as separate customer segments, it wants to follow clients across their financial lives and capture more of the business that comes with them.
The Philippine lender is sharpening a three-year growth strategy centered on wealth management, entrepreneur banking, and corporate and institutional banking, while using transaction banking, digital services, consumer-finance investments and its long-running alliance with Japan’s MUFG Bank to connect those businesses.
At the center of the strategy is what Security Bank President and CEO Victor Lee Meng Teck has described as a “one-bank, one-team” culture—an approach designed to break down traditional divisions inside the institution and make the bank more relevant as clients become wealthier, expand businesses or develop more complex financing needs.
And the numbers explain why Security Bank sees an opportunity.
Wealth Business Has Grown Fourteenfold
Security Bank’s wealth assets under management climbed from about ₱40 billion in 2017 to ₱560 billion in 2025, a fourteenfold increase.
That gives the bank a much larger platform from which to pursue affluent and emerging-affluent Filipinos, a segment increasingly demanding services beyond traditional deposits.
Security Bank’s strategy is to deepen those relationships across investments, financing and other financial services rather than compete for individual transactions.
For business owners, the same idea extends into entrepreneur banking.
Its micro, small and medium enterprise portfolio expanded from ₱13 billion in 2021 to ₱32.5 billion in 2025, reflecting the lender’s push to become a more significant financial partner to growing Philippine businesses.
The opportunity is considerable because MSMEs account for the overwhelming majority of businesses in the Philippines and play a major role in employment and domestic economic activity.
But Security Bank’s strategy goes beyond simply making more loans.
For entrepreneurs who eventually accumulate significant personal wealth, the bank sees an opportunity to connect business banking with wealth management. Likewise, a growing SME may eventually require payroll services, cash management, trade finance, foreign exchange or larger corporate financing.
The central idea is simple: follow the client rather than force the client to navigate separate banking silos.
Bigger Bet on Corporate and Infrastructure Finance
Security Bank is applying the same approach to large companies and institutional clients.
Project-finance gross loans increased from ₱53 billion in 2024 to ₱76.2 billion in 2025, while trade loans more than doubled from ₱16.1 billion in 2020 to ₱33.8 billion in 2025.
The bank says it wants to play a larger role not just in lending but also in the everyday financial operations of companies—including payments, collections, payroll, liquidity management, trade and treasury services.
That could be important because transaction banking can deepen customer relationships while also strengthening a bank’s deposit franchise.
Security Bank said that from 2025 through 2026 it had already helped arrange 10 project-finance loans representing more than ₱500 billion worth of projects, highlighting its growing exposure to major infrastructure, energy and investment activity.
Its investment-banking subsidiary, Security Bank Capital, adds another layer through project finance and capital-markets transactions.
MUFG Partnership Gives Security Bank a Global Door
Security Bank also has an advantage that few domestic competitors can replicate in exactly the same way: its decade-long strategic relationship with MUFG Bank.
The partnership dates to 2016, when the Japanese banking giant invested ₱36.9 billion for a 20% stake in Security Bank.
The relationship gives Security Bank access to MUFG’s international network, particularly when serving Japanese companies, multinational corporations and Philippine businesses operating across borders.
Security Bank wants to build on that relationship as foreign investment, infrastructure development and cross-border trade create demand for financing and transaction services that extend beyond the Philippines.
Its Japan Desk has already become one channel for those relationships.
Consumer Finance Expands the Ecosystem
Security Bank is simultaneously extending its reach outside conventional banking through businesses including Home Credit Philippines, SB Finance and Mitsubishi Motors Finance Philippines.
Security Bank completed a 25% investment in Home Credit Philippines in 2025, giving the lender exposure to the consumer-finance market.
Its Mitsubishi Motors Finance joint venture provides another route into vehicle financing.
Mitsubishi Motors said the financing company expanded its service across all 67 Mitsubishi dealerships nationwide after operations began in 2025, linking the Japanese automaker’s Philippine network with Security Bank’s financing capabilities.
By the end of 2025, Security Bank said the venture was booking more than 1,000 vehicle units per month, representing roughly ₱1 billion in monthly booked value.
Together, those businesses broaden Security Bank’s reach without requiring every customer relationship to originate inside a conventional bank branch.
Digital Banking and AI Become the Connecting Layer
Technology is another crucial component of the one-bank strategy.
Security Bank has been consolidating customers onto its newer mobile banking platform while strengthening payment infrastructure and digital onboarding.
By the first quarter of 2026, the Security Bank App had reached around 1.62 million enrolled users and processed 72.5 million transactions, according to the bank.
Security Bank is also developing a centrally governed approach to artificial intelligence covering areas such as technology development, financial analysis and operational support.
The bank has stressed that human oversight will remain part of the model—a significant point as Philippine financial institutions increasingly explore AI while facing heightened expectations around cybersecurity, data protection and financial risk management.
Stronger Revenue Momentum—But Execution Matters
Security Bank enters the strategy from a stronger earnings position.
For the first half of 2026, the bank reported ₱6.1 billion in net income, up 4% year on year, while revenues increased 11% to ₱34.9 billion.
Pre-provision operating profit jumped 21% to ₱15.4 billion, helped by revenue growth that outpaced expenses.
Its cost-to-income ratio improved to 55.7% from 59.6% a year earlier.
But one figure illustrates why the bank’s next growth strategy matters: net loans stood at about ₱675 billion at the end of June, only 1% higher year on year.
That means Security Bank’s next phase will depend not merely on attracting more customers, but on extracting deeper, higher-value relationships from the clients it already serves while selectively winning new ones.
The bank itself has made clear that it does not intend to chase every possible market.
Instead, it is concentrating resources on areas where management believes Security Bank can build a lasting competitive advantage.
For customers, that could mean one financial institution attempting to follow them from their first business loan to corporate expansion, investment management and eventually complex cross-border financing.
For Security Bank, however, the challenge is bigger.
A “one-bank” strategy works only if the institution can actually make its different businesses behave like one bank.
Leave a Reply