They merged in 1999 and were approved by the Bangko Sentral and other agencies that had created the third largest Philippine bank, with Equitable as the survivor of the merger.

The bank played an important role in the impeachment trial of the former president Joseph Estrada.

Subsequent acquisitions by Banco de Oro enabled it to gain a 34% share in the bank.

The merger demoted the Bank of the Philippine Islands to third place, with P582 billion in assets.

BDO has since surpassed Metrobank in asset, loan and deposit sizes to become the largest lender in the Philippines.

Two years later, on March 26, 1965, Equitable opened its first provincial branch in Cebu City.

It was established in July 1938 as the Philippine Commercial Industrial Bank, with its head office in Dasmariñas Street, Binondo, Manila.

It established its ExpressPadala Center in Ermita, and pioneered the remittance business in the country.

In 1983, it decided to change the "I" in PCIBank from "Industrial" to "International", to reflect the wide foreign office network of the bank.

The bank has also been cited for its export financing, specialized lending and consumer finance activities by the Philippine Export and Foreign Loan Guarantee Corporation, the Development Bank of the Philippines, and the Home Insurance and Guaranty Corporation.

Addressing the various needs of its customers, PCI Bank set up subsidiaries to provide services ranging from leasing, investment banking and stock market transactions to credit cards, consumer loans, insurance, and overseas remittances.