Former Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) president and CEO Xavier Loinaz, who led the Ayala-led bank for more than two decades, passed away at the age of 82 on Oct. 4.
Loinaz, known to colleagues as ‘XP,’ served as BPI’s president and CEO from 1982 to 2004, one of the longest leadership tenures in Philippine banking.
He guided the bank through difficult periods, including the debt crisis of the early 1980s and the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, while steering BPI toward resilience and growth.
BPI president and CEO Jose Teodoro ‘TG’ Limcaoco said Loinaz’s leadership defined ‘an era of resilience and innovation’ for the bank.
During his tenure, BPI pioneered key innovations in the local industry. It became the first Philippine bank to roll out automated teller machines in the early 1980s and launched internet banking in 1999, transforming the way Filipinos accessed financial services.
Loinaz also oversaw major acquisitions that solidified BPI’s market leadership, including Family Bank in the mid-1980s, Citytrust in the mid-1990s and Far East Bank at the turn of the century.