One of the older buildings in the Sta. Cruz area is the quite inconspicuous building of Monte de Piedad. It is just beside the Filipino Chinese Friendship arch at the end of Ongpin Street in Sta. Cruz district. Monte de Piedad is considered as the Philippines first savings bank having been established in 1882. The bank was established to cater to the financial needs of the poor. What’s more, the Catholic Church of the Philippines had strong ties to this bank, in fact the chairman of the board is usually the Archbishop of Manila.
Although the bank survived through the years, after years of unsound banking practices, the bank shut down in 1997 and was sold to a foreign firm in the banking liberalization of the late 1990s. Today, the bank is known as GE Money Bank having been bought this time by General Electric. The building itself although not really well maintained still retains most of the grace and grandeur it once had during its heyday. Although colonial buildings may not be that common in Manila what with its rush to develop everything, some of these buildings still stand, and the Monte de Piedad Building is an example of this.
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