PSBank, Citi PH announce new leaders

MANILA, Philippines – Two banks — Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) and the Philippine unit of Citibank — announced changes at the top.

Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank), the thrift bank arm of tycoon George Ty’s Metrobank, has appointed Vicente Cuna, Jr. as its new president, replacing Pascual Garcia III who retired.

Citibank, now called Citi, announced that Batara Sianturi will assume the post of country officer on June 1, replacing Sanjiv Vohra, who has served in that position since November 2005.

PSBank

In a disclosure on Thursday, April 18, PSBank said Cuna will be nominated to succeed Garcia as president at the bank’s organizational meeting after its annual stockholders meeting on April 19.

Garcia, who has been president since 2001, was at the helm of the thrift bank when it was dragged in the impeachment trial against former Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012.

“His vision and leadership allowed PSBank to achieve its standing as one of the key players in the consumer banking market today,” the bank said in the disclosure.

Before assuming new role, Cuna was vice chairman and director at PSBank from 2009 to 2011, and had served as an adviser at Metrobank since 2007..

He was the the head of institutional and corporate banking at Metrobank and was the chairman of Metro Remittance (Canada), Inc.

Cuna held previous positions in Citibank Manila, Citibank New York and JP Morgan New York.

He holds an AB degree in Economics from De La Salle University.

Citi PH

In a statement on April 17, US-headquartered Citi credited outgoing Vohra for expanding the Philippine unit’s business processing activities and for boosting the company’s corporate and consumer banking businesses in the country.

Incoming country head Batara, on the other hand, has been country officer for Hungary and cluster head for that country and 12 others in the Balkan and Baltic regions in central Eastern Europe.

Batara, an Indonesian, joined Citi as a management associate in 1988, and had since served as consumer chief financial officer, overseas mortgage head in Australia, branch network and sales director, retail banking director and marketing director for retail banking and credit cards in Australia and Indonesia.

Batara earned a degree in chemical engineering and polymer science from Case Western Reserve University, then went on to finish a master’s in chemical engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology and an MBA in finance from St. John’s University. – Rappler.com