Veterans Bank to Raise Capital from Postwar Veterans, AFP Retirees 

Philippine Veterans Bank’s (PVB) capital raising efforts goes full-swing this June targeting new shareholders coming from post-war II veterans, AFP Retirees and their families.

This comes after the passage of Republic Act 11597, or the Philippine Veterans Bank Act, into law last December 2021. Until recently, PVB was owned by over 385,000 World War II veterans and their compulsory heirs. But the Bank’s new Charter changed this provision and now allows other veterans as defined by the law to become stockholders.

This includes post-war veterans such as Korean & Vietnam War veterans and their widows and descendants, as well as retirees of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and their immediate family members. Under the same law, the authorized capital of the Bank was increased from P100 million to P10 billion.

Working under this expanded definition of “veterans”, the Bank has already initiated talks with interested AFP retirees’ groups but plans are underway to ramp up activities to solidify its capital and be able to reach out to individual veterans and to even more AFP retirees’ groups nationwide.

To help generate awareness for the capital-raising endeavors, PVB has also developed a shareholder campaign entitled “Invest in Heroism, Invest in PVB” which aims to invite retired military personnel to buy PVB shares at P110/share at a minimum lot of 100 shares.

The Bank is targeting to raise P4.4B from the new veterans and retiree groups, and said funds will be used to further strengthen PVB’s core businesses and to fuel expansion. Currently, PVB remains very viable with total assets of PHP 66B with P29.9B in excess liquidity as of March 2023. Last 2022, Veterans Bank reported a net income of P268M.

The new PVB charter also highlights the provision that maintains PVB’s status as an authorized government depository bank. Under Sec. 28 of R.A. 11597, national government agencies (NGAs), local government units (LGUs), and government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) can make deposits with PVB and recent circulars from the Department of Finance, namely Circular Nos. 002-2022 and 003-2022 have affirmed PVB’s status as an authorized government depository. By extension, being an AGDB allows PVB to continue offering its products and services such as loans and cash management services to government clients.