About bank
Sterling Bank of Asia is a savings bank whose principal owners are the JTKC Group of Companies, Surewell Equities, and Star Equities. The companies are interested in various industries, ranging from logistics, finance, real estate, manufacturing, hotel, and resort properties.
It was established on March 30, 2007, in response to the Philippine Government's directive to create specialized financial institutions to help the small and medium enterprise sector. In 2012, it was ranked 5th among 67 thrift banks in total deposits and 6th in total assets.
It began operations in 2007 with seven branches before being purchased in 2009 by Centennial Savings Bank. It currently has 47 branches across the country.
Features
The bank was created to offer accessible financial solutions and banking services to commercial and retail market segments. Since opening its first branch in March 2007, Sterling Bank of Asia's network has grown to branches located in critical areas and cities across the country under the leadership of a core group of successful businessmen and entrepreneurs and the management of experienced professional bankers.
They have an innovative and unified identity and a highly skilled and professional team of staff who makes their customers the center of their business, as evidenced by the heart-shaped logo of the bank.
The bank strives to be the bank of choice for its diverse customer base, even in the face of intensified competition in the banking industry and rising customer expectations. In its pursuit of service excellence, the bank strives to support its core values.
Sterling Bank of Asia offers features like online banking, which they call online-personal. With this service, a customer can access an already enrolled Sterling Bank of Asia deposit account and perform some banking transactions through their preferred Internet-enabled device.
Products
To serve large corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and retail customers, the bank offers a variety of deposits, loans, investments, asset management, and other financial products through its five business divisions. These are retail banking, commercial lending, consumer lending, treasury, and trust.
Sterling Bank of Asia partners with individual and corporate clients to grow and manage their wealth and resources that will eventually help them reach their financial goals, guided by the philosophy that client's needs must come first and by banking to a different beat. They also offer products like PESONet and ShopNPay.
Here is a detailed overview of the products offered by the bank:
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Retail Banking. Retail banking allows individual consumers to manage their money, gain access to credit, and deposit their money in a safe manner.
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Commercial lending. They take out commercial credit to pay for business expenses, real estate, or equipment that borrowers need to operate or expand.
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Consumer lending. Consumer lending is the kind of financing that targets individuals and households. It includes home and car loans, as well as personal loans for individuals and families that use the funds for personal or family purposes.
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PesoNet. PESONet is a new electronic funds transfer service that allows customers of participating banks, e-money issuers, or mobile money operators to transfer funds in Philippine peso currency to another participating bank, e-money issuer, or mobile money operator in the Philippines.
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ShopNPay. Sterling Bank's ShopNPay Visa Debit and Prepaid Cards enable you to access your funds anytime and anywhere in the world. Sterling Bank of Asia offers types of ShopNPay Visa Cards:
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Debit card. An all-in-one account that allows you to safely access your bank account's funds to make purchases, pay bills, or withdraw cash at ATMs anytime and anywhere in the world.
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Prepaid card. A reloadable stored-value Visa card that you can use to make purchases, pay bills, or withdraw cash at ATMs anytime and anywhere in the world by loading funds according to your choice of amount.
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Pros and cons
The bank offers a vast array of services and products. However, just like any other bank, Sterling also has its set of advantages and disadvantages that we will address below.
Pros
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The bank takes up the safety of public wealth as a responsibility.
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The bank offers a global reach.
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The bank offers a wide variety of products and services.
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The bank also provides its users with online banking services.
Cons
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The bank has taken a lot of public debt.
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The loans offered here have high-interest rates.