The bank started operations at the ground floor of the Trade and Commerce Building on Juan Luna Street in Binondo, Manila, with a staff of twenty men, all below the age of thirty and many fresh out of school.

On July 15, 1947, PBCOM opened its first provincial branch in Cebu City and a year later leased a lot in front of its main office at the time.

The bank's trust department was established in 1962 and its headquarters remodeled in 1964, which included the retrofitting of the building to house Binondo's first escalator.

The new management subsequently infused an additional 83 million pesos in capital, and established its treasuries group later in the year.

PBCOM relocated its original Cebu City branch in 1999 and celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in September 1999.

It subsequently introduced online banking in 2003 and was infused with an additional three billion pesos in fresh capital.

The funds were really used to buy high-yielding government securities that would stop the true sale of any non-performing assets to a special purpose vehicle, or SPV.

In 2014, Lucio Co, a founder of the Philippine supermarket chain, Puregold became the largest shareholder of the Bank with the subscription to 181.080 million newly issued common shares of the Bank, equivalent to 37.7% ownership, by Co's holding company PG Holdings, Inc. At P33 ($0.74*) per share, the transaction was worth P5.9 billion ($132.52 million).

[4] The license upgrade provides additional capabilities for PBCOM to invest in non-allied enterprises and allows the bank to expand its product and service offerings.