FICOBank Celebrates Its 36th Anniversary

The year 2012 marks the 36th founding anniversary of the First Isabela Cooperative Bank (FICOBank). This year’s founding anniversary—with the theme: “Shaping a Better Future Today”—was celebrated on September 10 at all banking offices of FICOBank in Regions I-II-III. The Bank’s valued clients and business allies were invited to celebrate this significant event with its front-office managers and staff. The week-long anniversary celebration culminated on September 15, 2012 at the FICOBank Corporate Office. Present during the grand anniversary celebration were the board of directors, senior management, department/back-office heads and staff, branch/extension office managers and deputies, coop-stockholders’ representatives, former chairmen and directors, and some of the Agricultural Cooperative Development Officers (ACDOs) who were responsible for laying the foundations of success that FICOBank now enjoys.

FICOBank’s journey to success began thirty-six years ago, on September 10, 1976 to be exact, when a group of farmer-leaders representing two cooperatives and 47 samahang nayons joined hands, heads and hearts together to organize an equitably-owned and democratically-controlled cooperative rural bank (CRB) in the province of Isabela. The primary purpose for establishing the CRB was to provide financing to small farmers who have limited resources and access to banking services.

Formerly known as First Isabela Cooperative Rural Bank, Inc. (FICRBI), the Bank was registered with both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bureau of Cooperative Development of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development (BCOD-MLGCD) on February 14, 1979 and April 10, 1979, respectively. Subsequently, the Central Bank of the Philippines granted FICOBank its Certificate of Authority, numbered B-1000, on December 29, 1979 to operate as a cooperative rural bank. It was on January 2, 1980 when the Bank unleashed the first salvo of its banking services to the public.

Over the years, FICOBank operates continually on the basis of firm and sound cooperative banking principles. And for the reason that its cooperative nature translates to “people helping people transform their lives,” FICOBank is now more involved in the progress of the community than any other banking institution. To a great extent, the Bank contributes to the socio-economic development of the people, thereby, making it a valuable community asset.

From a molehill-size cooperative rural bank that it opted to be in 1976, FICOBank rose to a mountain-high coop bank, as it can now lay claim to a resource base of over P2.2 billion and a banking network of 27 units strategically located in the provinces of Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Cagayan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Bataan and Pangasinan. These operating units extend effectively the Bank’s market reach and bolster its capability to service its over 60,000 multisectoral clients.

On its 36th year, FICOBank reaffirms its corporate responsibility to make internal changes that go beyond the usual—doing better than what it has been doing all along and making higher, broader and more sophisticated levels of business and services. This is the nexus of FICOBank’s innovatory banking strategy today in shaping a better banking future.