Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP; often referred to simply as LandBank), is a

government-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownership ...

bank in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

with a special focus on serving the needs of

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

s and

fishermen A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...

. While it provides the services of a

universal bank A universal bank participates in many kinds of banking activities and is both a commercial bank and an investment bank as well as providing other financial services such as insurance.government-owned and controlled corporation In the Philippines, a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC), sometimes with an "and/or", is a state-owned enterprise that conducts both commercial and non-commercial activity. Examples of the latter would be the Government Service In ...

s and banking institutions in the Philippines along with the

Development Bank of the Philippines The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is a state-owned development bank headquartered in Makati, Philippines. It was established after World War II in 1947 on the government's effort through its mandate to rebuild the country's war to ...

(DBP),

Overseas Filipino Bank The Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank) is the state-owned digital-only, branchless bank in the Philippines. Formerly known as the Philippine Postal Savings Bank (PPSB) or PostBank, it is the smallest of the Philippines' three state-owned banks (t ...

(OFW Bank), and Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines. Unlike most Philippine banks, LandBank has an extensive rural branch network with 409 Branches and Extension Offices, 46 Lending Centers and 2,188 ATMs (as of February 2020). It services many rural sector clients in areas where banking is either limited to rural banks or is non-existent.

History

LandBank was established on August 8, 1963, as part of the

Agricultural Land Reform Code The Agricultural Land Reform Code, officially designated as Republic Act No. 3844, was an advancement of land reform in the Philippines that was enacted in 1963 under President Diosdado Macapagal. It abolished tenancy and established a leasehold s ...

as part of a program of

land reform in the Philippines Land reform in the Philippines has long been a contentious issue rooted in the Philippines's Spanish Colonial Period. Some efforts began during the American Colonial Period with renewed efforts during the Commonwealth, following independence, dur ...

. It was to help with the purchase of agricultural estates for division and resale to small landholders and the purchase of land by the agricultural lessee. In 1965, LandBank's by-laws were approved and its first

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit org ...

was formed, with the Secretary of Finance as chairman. On October 21, 1972, Presidential Decree No. 27, signed by President

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

, emancipated all tenant farmers working on private agricultural lands devoted to rice and corn, whether working on a landed estate or not. The system was implemented through a system of

sharecropping Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

or lease-tenancy. LandBank was tasked to collect 15-year land amortizations from beneficiaries at the cost of the value of the land plus six percent interest per annum. By 1973, LandBank was in financial distress. It lacked the resources and the capital needed to implement the land reform programs and lacked the structure to implement the programs efficiently. On July 21, Marcos signed Presidential Decree No. 251 which revitalized the bank. The decree granted LandBank a universal banking license (the first bank in the Philippines to be issued such a license) with a social mission to spur countryside development. The decree expanded LandBank's powers to include lending for agricultural, industrial, homebuilding and home-financing projects and other productive enterprises, as well as lending to farmers'

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

s and associations to facilitate production, marketing of crops and acquisition of essential commodities. LandBank was also required by the decree to provide timely and adequate support in all phases involved in the execution of agrarian reform and also increased its authorized

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

to 3 billion pesos. It also became exempted from all national, provincial, city and municipal taxes and assessments. LandBank was reorganized in 1977 when it was divided into three sectors to better assess the needs of its customers. It was divided into Agrarian, Banking and Operations sectors to strengthen operations and ensure long-term viability. In 1982, the Agricultural Credit Administration (ACA), established under the same law as LandBank, was abolished and all its assets and functions transferred to LandBank. ACA's function was to extend

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

to small farmers. Also in this year,

Union Bank of the Philippines The Union Bank of the Philippines, Inc., more commonly known as UnionBank, is one of the universal banks in the Philippines and the ninth largest bank in the country by assets. UnionBank is a joint consortium among the Aboitiz Group, Insular ...

(UnionBank) was formed, with LandBank having a 40-percent stake in the government-owned

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with ...

. LandBank became the financial

intermediary An intermediary (or go-between) is a third party that offers intermediation services between two parties, which involves conveying messages between principals in a dispute, preventing direct contact and potential escalation of the issue. In la ...

for the

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, more commonly known as CARP, is an agrarian reform law of the Philippines whose legal basis is the Republic Act No. 6657, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL). It is the redistri ...

(CARP) in 1988. It was also in that year that UnionBank started a gradual privatization. The Aboitiz Group of Companies acquired LandBank's 40% share of UnionBank then which it continues to own. LandBank also became the third member of

Expressnet Expressnet is an interbank network connecting the ATM networks of seven major banks in the Philippines. It has the second-largest number of ATMs (largely due to the vast nationwide presence of Bank of the Philippine Islands Express Teller AT ...

, an

interbank network An interbank network, also known as an ATM consortium or ATM network, is a computer network that enables ATM cards issued by a financial institution that is a member of the network to be used to perform ATM transactions through ATMs that belo ...

in December 1991 but now a

BancNet BancNet (also spelled Bancnet) is a Philippine-based interbank network connecting the ATM networks of local and offshore banks, and the country's single interbank network in the Philippines in terms of the number of member banks and annual tr ...

member. On February 23, 1995, LandBank's charter was once again amended. Its authorized capital was increased to nine billion pesos and it became an official government depository. The number of members of the board of trustees was also increased to nine. On August 25, 1998, LandBank's authorized capital was once again increased to 25 billion pesos, and it then increased to 200 billion pesos, after the planned DBP–LandBank merger in 2016. In 2014, LandBank was planned to be merged with the

(DBP). President

Benigno Aquino III Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (; February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021), also known as Noynoy Aquino and colloquially as PNoy, was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. The son of ...

signed Executive Order No. 198 on February 4, 2016, to give way on the merger, with the former as the surviving entity. However, the Duterte administration canceled the merger later that year. On June 25, 2021, President

Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945), also known as Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the chairperson ...

signed Executive Order No. 142 which mandates the merging of LandBank with the

United Coconut Planters Bank The United Coconut Planters Bank, more popularly known by its initials, UCPB, or by its old name, Cocobank, was a government-controlled and was one of the largest banks in the Philippines, ranking within the top twenty banks in the country in ...

(UCPB), with LandBank as the surviving entity.

Current operations

LandBank competes against the major banks such as Metrobank,

Bank of the Philippine Islands Bank of the Philippine Islands ( fil, Bangko ng Kapuluang Pilipinas, es, Banco de las Islas Filipinas, commonly known as BPI; ) is a universal bank in the Philippines. It is the first bank in both the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It is t ...

(BPI), Banco de Oro and

Philippine National Bank The Philippine National Bank (PNB, Filipino/ tl, Bangko Nasyonal ng Pilipinas, lit=; es, Banco Nacional Filipino; Hokkien ) is one of the largest banks in the Philippines. It was established by the Philippine government on July 22, 1916, duri ...

(PNB). In rural areas, it either competes against or complements rural banks. On the other end of the spectrum, LandBank takes on a dual role with the

, another government-owned bank. It either competes against or works with DBP, depending on the situation.

Board of Directors

*Chairman: Finance Sec. Benjamin E. Diokno *Vice Chairman: Cecilia C. Borromeo *Members: **

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

& Agriculture Sec.

Bongbong Marcos Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. ( , , ; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials PBBM or BBM, is a Filipino politician who is the 17th and current president of the Philippines. He previously served as a sen ...

** DOLE Sec. Bienvenido E. Laguesma ** DAR Sec. Conrado M. Estrella III **Virgilio D.V. Robes - Representative, Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Sector **Jaime L. Miralles - Representative, Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Sector **Nancy D. Irlanda - Representative, Private Sector

Executive Management Team

*Cecilia C. Borromeo -

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

*Liduvino S. Geron - Executive Vice President, National Development Lending Sector *Julio D. Climaco Jr. - Executive Vice President, Branch Banking Sector *Alan V. Bornas - Executive Vice President, Operations Sector *Carel D. Halog - Executive Vice President, Treasury and Investment Banking Sector *Alex A. Lorayes - Executive Vice President, Corporate Services Sector

Subsidiaries and affiliates

Land Bank has the following subsidiaries and affiliates: *LBP Leasing Corporation *LBP Insurance Brokerage *LBP Resources and Development Corporation (former LB (Land Bank) Realty Development Corporation) *Masaganang Sakahan, Inc. *LBP Countryside Development Foundation, Inc. *UCPB Securities, Inc. *

References

External links

Land Bank website

Largest Banks in the Philippines (2009)
{{authority control

Agriculture in the Philippines Banks of the Philippines Government-owned and controlled corporations of the Philippines Companies based in Manila Banks established in 1963