The municipality of Pangil sits in one of the farthest corners of the province of Laguna, three hours away from southern Metro Manila. Growing up in the 1980s, Atty. Bernard Joseph "Bong" Malibiran spent his summer vacations here. His mother was the General Manager of the Rural Bank of Pangil, which had been co-founded by his grandfather in 1970. Under Mrs. Remedios Malibiran's leadership, the bank expanded to the municipalities of Pakil and Siniloan – also in the outskirts of Laguna – and even to Infanta in Quezon Province. She continued to run the bank for decades, weathering the global financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath.

By 2010, however, the landscape for rural banks had largely shifted. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) had begun encouraging mergers or consolidations to strengthen the rural banking system. Competition grew, regulatory requirements became more complex, and the traditional banking model – which relied heavily on deposits and secured loans – was becoming less viable for rural banks.

As the third generation in line to take over the bank, Atty. Bong decided to explore other options, knowing that he might not be the best fit to steer it forward.

Around this time, a childhood friend of his, Jose Paolo Palileo, was running the Rural Bank of Atimonan (RBA). Mr. Palileo, President of RBA, coincidentally reached out to Atty. Bong in 2015 and invited him to sit on their Board as an Independent Director. As part of RBA's Board of Directors, Atty. Bong gained insight into industry data and sector strategy. More importantly, he witnessed firsthand how efficiently Mr. Palileo's team ran their banks in the most isolated and disadvantaged areas of Quezon Province.

RBA had built a strong microfinance portfolio that was heavy in unsecured loans, paired with frequent and disciplined collection. Despite the high proportion of unsecured lending, the bank's performance exceeded industry standards.

Seeing this, Atty. Bong soon broached the idea of the Rural Bank of Pangil merging into RBA. Although Mr. Palileo had not been looking to expand outside of Quezon yet, he had complete trust in the Malibiran family. They began the process in 2018 and, by 2020, the two banks officially merged.

This milestone proved to be pivotal to RBA, which rebranded to Bayanihan Bank. The merger catalyzed their expansion not only by opening up new markets, but by giving their young team the crucial experience of bringing their operations to a new province. This solidified their belief that they could serve their clients well, no matter the differences in culture and demographics – and that their services were invaluable to the unbanked Filipino.