IFC rep resigns from BDO board

MANILA, Philippines – A board member of the Sy-led BDO Unibank has resigned after a “reassignment.”

“We wish to inform you that Ms. Farida Khambata, representative of the International Finance Corp (IFC) in the Board of BDO Unibank, Inc. has resigned as director of BDO due to her reassignment by the IFC,” the bank informed the exchange on Friday, June 14.

Khambata, 64, a Canadian, joined the BDO board in 2010 and was a member of the Corporate Governance Committee.

The IFC, which is the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, secured a seat in the BDO board in September that year after it acquired $150 million worth of BDO’s newly issued shares to support the Sy-led bank’s lending to small and medium enterprises.

Khambata is a partner at asset management firm Cartica Management, focused exclusively on emerging markets. Before joining Cartica, she was IFC’s regional vice president heading IFC’s operations in East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa. She transferred to IFC from the World Bank in 1986.

BDO said they will take up her resignation in the next board meeting. – Rappler.com