Digital Banks Take the Lead in Forbes’ 2025 Best Banks in the PH
Only a few traditional banks remain in the top nine.
(SPOT.ph) It wasn’t too long ago that digital banks were seen as the newcomers—convenient, yes, but more of an alternative than a serious rival to traditional financial institutions. That’s no longer the case. In Forbes’ 2025 list of the World’s Best Banks, Maya and GoTyme have claimed the top two spots, overtaking the most established names in Philippine banking.
It’s a sharp rise for both compared to 2024's list—Maya jumped from third, while GoTyme jumped from seventh. As defined by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, "digital banks offer financial products and services that are processed end-to-end through a digital platform or electronic channel with minimal or no reliance on physical touchpoints.”
Two more digital players also made the cut: UNO Digital Bank returns in eighth place, while SeaBank Philippines makes a debut in ninth place. To put things into perspective, nearly half of the list is now occupied by banks that didn’t even exist a few years ago.
Still, traditional banks continue to hold ground with Metrobank, BPI, and PNB. Meanwhile, the Philippines’ biggest bank, BDO Unibank, continues to be absent from the list.
“Amid the recent onslaught of tariffs issued by President Donald Trump, plummeting global markets, and widespread economic uncertainty, consumers around the world may be more intent than ever on choosing a bank they can trust,” Forbes said.
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Philippine banks on Forbes’ list of World’s Best Banks in 2025
Here are the Philippine banks included in the 2025 World's Best Banks by Forbes.
The rankings are based on a global survey conducted by Forbes in partnership with market research firm Statista, asking more than 50,000 people across 34 countries to rate banks they currently use—or have used in the last three years—on factors like trustworthiness, fees, customer service, digital tools, and financial advice.
- Maya Bank
- GoTyme Bank
- Metropolitan Bank & Trust
- Bank of the Philippine Islands
- Land Bank of the Philippines
- UnionBank of the Philippines
- Philippine National Bank
- UNO Digital Bank
- SeaBank Philippines
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