Eugene Sering Acevedo has been tagged as the “consummate banker” for a good reason.
Acevedo is the president and chief executive of the Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).
Before joining RCBC, Acevedo was the president and chief executive of the Philippine National Bank, chairman of CitySavings and managing director of Citibank.
He was born in Cebu City, raised in Surigao del Sur and studied high school at De La Salle John Bosco College in Bislig City where he graduated valedictorian. He finished the Advanced Management Program at the prestigious Harvard Business School.
Prior to throwing his hat into the banking industry, he taught Physics at the state-run University of the Philippines.
Acevedo is no stranger to accolades. He finished BS Physics magna cum laude and was a National Science and Technology awardee for academic excellence at the University of San Carlos and a recipient of Outstanding Alumnus Award.
In 2024, he is a People of the Year awardee.
Acevedo now also serves as chairman of Rizal Microbank and RCBC Forex Brokers Corp., vice chairman of RCBC Leasing and Finance Corp., director of RCBC Rental Corp., RCBC Capital Corp., RCBC International Finance Ltd., and RCBC Investment Ltd.
As a boy, Acevedo dreamt of becoming a medical doctor, but somehow, his interest shifted to physics which he described as “the most exact of sciences.”
Then again, fate had other plans for him, so he ultimately ended up as a banker.
Political history also played a crucial role in his career shift. In 1987, amid the political upheaval in the country, the Asian Institute of Management offered Acevedo a scholarship, and he jumped into the opportunity without much ado.
“AIM was being advertised as an accelerator of careers. That early, I was already thinking of coming to AIM, taking an MBA. I was hoping that I’d be able to accelerate my career that way,” he recalled.
He recalled that after Martial Law, it was only banking sector that was hiring, apart from agriculture. “Since I was very active in extracurricular activities, the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that my place was in the corporate world, rather than in the sciences,” he said.
In 2010, Acevedo joined PNB as president and CEO. Under his watch, the bank mustered a 60-percent growth in profit and tripled its share price, resulting in market valuation rise from $300 million to $1 billion.
He later hopped to Union Bank of the Philippines as senior executive vice president in 2011, and designated chairman of its thrift bank subsidiary, CitySavings, in 2013. With Acevedo at the driver’s seat, CitySavings’ assets and income ballooned to become the top income generator for the bank.
Circa 2019, Acevedo moved over to RCBC. With him as president and CEO, the bank achieved unprecedented growth—16 percent annually on the average.
“We were the first bank to declare our withdrawal of support for coal power plants and redirecting of our resources towards renewable energy,” he said. “We are the best bank in customer service, beating the bigger banks in the country. So, all those qualitative and financial achievements confirm what I have always believed in: that RCBC bankers can compete with rivals in the industry.”
RCBC reported P12.22 billion in consolidated net income in 2023, with total assets of P1.2 trillion.
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