“A bank is forever,” goes the corporate credo of Far East Bank and Trust Company, the Philippine’s seventh largest commercial lender. JOBO pointed out that; bankers come and go but its commitment to serve the public is forever.

| Bank Transformation | The Start | Lesson from Jobo |
| Typical Man | Concept of FEBTC |
| Far East Bank Corporate Credo |

Bank Transformation

The discussions about establishing a new bank were countless. The turning point, however came during two plane rides sometime in 1958 – one from Tokyo to Manila, and the other from Manila to Cebu. There, SyCip kept telling Jobo that the risk was worth taking. David Choa listened. It was a long discussion that went uninterrupted.

Prior to that, in a bar in Tokyo (behind the piano and in between martinis), the name Far East Bank and Trust Company (FEBTC) came up. "Why the name?" we asked Jobo Fernandez in 1989. "We intended it to have a coverage beyond the Philippines. It because it was mellifluous. It was mellifluous," he kept saying.

Thus, inspired by that one great vision, Fernandez organized the new bank in 1959.

June 1, 1959 signalled the start of the organizational phase in the establishment of Far East Bank. On that date, Fernandez and his good friend from his Fordham days, David Choa, as well as his former secretary at the Philippine Bank of Commerce, Florencia Aguas, moved to Room 210 on the second floor of the Bank of the Philippine Islands head office building at Plaza Cervantes in Manila’s Binondo area. It was these three who started the spadework for the organization of the new bank right after they left PBC on May 31, 1959.

Jobo Fernandez would always mention Don Albino SyCip, the father of his close associate Washington SyCip, for the latter's faith in him. (Albino SyCip was president of the China Banking Corporation and was one of the most respected bankers during those days.) Jobo had approached Don Albino for a loan with which to finance the organization of the new bank. With not a bit of reluctance on his part, the old man granted Jobo the clean loan that he had requested. The collateral was the dream.

At that time, Jobo Fernandez had already established a reputation as one of the country’s financial wizards. He was first noticed at the Philippine Bank of Commerce as a creative and innovative banker who always had a lot of new ideas to share. There, he made use of bankers’ acceptances which later became popular among local commercial banks. He also attracted the attention of local bankers and businessmen when he syndicated a loan for one of his clients at a time when loan syndication was still a relatively new concept in Philippine banking.

Eleven out of the original 14 investor groups made up the first board of directors of the proposed bank, namely: Montinola (as chairman), Gabaldon (as vice chairman), Jobo Fernandez (as president), Virata (as treasurer), Palanca, Soriano, Medrano, Sison, Cacho, del Rosario and Vasquez as directors. For a while, Daniel Vazquez took turns with Emilio Gonzalez La'O to sit in the board at six-month intervals because they only had enough shares for one seat. Although he was the principal organizer of the new bank, Fernandez preferred someone older to provide the overall leadership. Thus, Aurelio Montinola Sr., who was also known for his far-sighted viewpoint, was elected chairman of the first board of directors.

As soon as the approval of the proposed charter was obtained sometime in September 1959, Joselin G. Fragada, a vice president at the Prudential Bank and Trust Company, joined the group. (Fragada worked with Jobo Fernandez at the Philippine Bank of Commerce until 1952. He was a credit investigator there and worked under Jobo when the latter was vice president and head of credit and loans.)

Despite the wide industry representation in the bank's shareholder groups, the organizers of Far East Bank had to live within their means. Patrick Ty, one of the original officers, lent his furnitures and fixtures so that they would have something to use at their two-room office at the BPI building at Plaza Cervantes. Since there was not enough space in their office then, their board meetings were often held at the New Europe restaurant in Ermita, the Swiss Inn restaurant on Dewey (now Roxas) Boulevard, or at the La Tondena office of Carlos Palanca, Jr.

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The Start

Far East Bank and Trust Company opened for business on Monday, April 4, 1960. During the bank’s inauguration day, April 1, 1960, Philippine President Carlos P. Garcia, who was the special guest then, said: “My image of Far East Bank and Trust Company is that of a stable bank.” It attracted public attention on account of its shareholder groups and its large paid-up capital of P6 million.

The bank was located in the first two floors of the brand new Trade Center Building, a landmark on Murall Street, Intramuros that was designed by well-known architect Alfredo Luz. That building was later renamed Far East Bank and Trust Company Main Building.

At the time Far East Bank opened for business, Jose B. Fernandez, Jr. was the youngest bank president in the country at the age of 36. The youth reflected the freshness of the spirit and the pace-setting orientation of the new banking organization that he founded. David G. Choa and Joselin G. Fragada were the bank's vice presidents.

Jobo Fernandez said: “When I organized the bank, I had definite ideas about how it should begin. I chose every person who join me. And I chose them for a reason: I wanted vision, variety of experience and, most importantly, a pre-occupation with long-term objectives.”

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Lesson from JOBO to his Staff
(in one of the affairs in the bank)

“When you start a bank, there is, first and foremost the struggle to survive, to see to it that you lay a sound basis for existence. When you are just beginning, you are worried about surviving. We have, I think, passed this ‘infant stage.’ Now, our emphasis is on how to be a more useful citizen, because as a bank we have a commitment to the community to be useful.”

“In this business, there must be a difference, or there would be no Far East Bank. Just banks, period. The bedrock of our existence is faith. People must have faith in our bank, faith in our competence to advance their interest, faith in our judgement, and faith in our integrity. This faith we must constantly earn. For without it, we have no name, and no game to play.”

He regularly talked institution. But he knew that first, a banking enterprise must be profitable and successful. That is why profitability and the quality of corporate bigness were always important concerns for him. In fact, at the end of 1960(or just nine months after the bank started operations), FEBTC posted a respectable net income. That was to be the beginning of an impressive record of profitability in the coming decades.

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Typical Man

Who was Jobo? The man was a banker-intellectual of the first order. He set himself apart from the rest that his ideas had not been confined to realms of intellectualization. He made them work.

By “work,” it means growth through untainted success. Far East Bank and Trust Company, a P6million bank in 1960, grew into one of the largest and most profitable banks in the country. The bank’s feat was achieved in less than 20 years without the blot of under-the-table deals and crony special treatment.

The bank was not a mere financial success. It was the institutionalization of a domestically-grown banking philosophy. One that goes back to the basics of classical credit applied to the intricacies and distortions of modern bank management in the Philippine setting. Florentino Dauz, a writer not exactly known for generous praises, described Jobo’s Far East Bank as “one that does not collapse every time the Central Bank issues a new regulation."

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Concept of FEBTC

JOBO constructed the foundation of a new institution in Philippine banking: a Filipino bank that will remain Filipino in orientation, in its management, in its purpose. An effort in institution-building gave a philosophy and a banking conviction an accurate objective expression. Jobo enlightened one writer in 1980:

“I realize that we have a lot of institution-building to do. People magnify their strengths and power in institutions that they create. We need institutions that will provide continuity, direction and strength. We’ve got to have strong institutions, whether they’re academic, social, political or business. The job of organizing such institutions is enormous. Strength of will is necessary. But I am confident we can do it.”

He wanted Far East Bank to become an institution. When people think of a Filipino bank, it has to be Far East that they shall identify as that Filipino bank.

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Far East Bank Corporate Credo

A bank is forever.
There is really no option.
From the first moment it accepts
the wage earner's peso in savings
to the time it handles millions of pesos
in corporate trust, it is committed
to relationships of confidence.

But then, one never really merits
the community’s confidence overnight.
It is usually earned in time.
And once won, it has to be rewon
a thousand times-everyday.
For months. And years. Decades.
To be sure, it is a forever thing.
Because no bank can afford
an erosion of public confidence,
however minimal or momentary,
and still hope for continuing
vigorous growth.
It takes nothing less than a commitment
---a truly responsible one---
to the community it serves.

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The other thing about Jobo as businessman was that he always told the truth. At the risk of losing his clients, he would make business decisions, that in his own language, “test the relationship between us and our friends.”

Jobo was among the group that established the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). The group included a select staff from Harvard University, led by Dr. Stephen H. Fuller who eventually became AIM’s first president. When the school opened in 1968, Jobo Fernandez was a member of the founding board of trustees, and he served in that capacity until 1993.

He told the Alumni Association of the Asian Institute of Management in 1981:

"...Beyond epistemology --beyond perception, beyond flight -- is the necessity for the old fashioned gift of being able to face facts squarely, which when exercised by management, tints the decision with the color of courage. A bank survives the environment by not willing beyond itself, by being frank with its clients about the limits of what it can and cannot do."

The institution built by JOBO is not just a brick or a wall. It was intended to have a soul to remind employees that there’s a beauty and fulfillment in serving Filipinos, a voice to express the truth even at the risk of losing clients.

The man was timeless, his wisdom crafted into every soul. The first corporate secretary of Far East Bank, Florencia Aguas illustrated him as a banker's banker.

“He was always full of ideas because he was very creative and innovative. He was truly a banker’s banker.”

Adapted from the Far East Bank “A special Commemorative Issue,” with permission from the executive editor Mr. Venie B. Rañosa

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