ASIA'S leading financial magazine FinanceAsia has once again named BDO Private Bank as the Philippines' Best Private Bank in this year's FinanceAsia Country Awards.

BDO Private Bank, which won the said award for the third time, was cited for the strong growth it posted despite the global financial crisis.

"It has roughly 4,500 individual customers with an average portfolio of around Php25 million which translates to a total of Php114 billion (US$2.45 billion) under management. As recently as 2003, the bank had just Php7 billion under management. At the start of 2009, that figure had grown 10-fold to Php72 billion and rose another 50% in 2009 alone,"FinanceAsia noted.

A fully owned subsidiary of Banco De Oro Unibank, Inc. (BDO), BDO Private Bank is the only domestic bank in the Philippines providing expert and professional private banking services. It is solely focused on giving comprehensive wealth management services to the country's high net worth and modern affluent markets.

"All of us at BDO Private Bank are challenged to continually innovate and look for better ways to serve and meet clients' dynamic needs. We are at the forefront of an exploding business segment, the tremendous growth in the emerging wealthy and affluent markets demand a specialized and focused banking service," said its president Josefina N. Tan.