Forbes Just Ranked the Best Banks in the Philippines for 2026. Two of Them Are on My Phone.

Mark V. April 27, 2026
Forbes Just Ranked the Best Banks in the Philippines for 2026

I will be honest — I did not expect to see this list and immediately recognize my own banking apps on it.

But there they were.

Forbes released its 2026 World's Best Banks list — a ranking of banks across countries based on a survey of 54,000 people — and when I looked at the Philippine entries, two of the top five are apps I have installed on my phone right now.

MariBank emerged as the top-ranked institution in the Philippines, followed by GoTyme Bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, UnionBank of the Philippines, and Maya Bank. Other banks recognized were Metrobank, LANDBANK, and Philippine National Bank.

MariBank at Number 1. Maya at Number 5.

Both on my phone. Both actively used. And MariBank — I literally just got my first online loan there.

Let me talk about this list properly.

How Forbes Built This Ranking

This is not a list of the richest banks or the biggest banks. It is a satisfaction and recommendation ranking — which makes it more meaningful for everyday Filipino consumers.

Forbes and Statista surveyed 54,000 people across different countries, where they shared their level of satisfaction with each bank and how likely they would be to recommend it to others. Participants rated each bank on five criteria: trustworthiness — confidence in the bank's financial stability — terms and conditions such as fees and rates, customer service including wait times and employees' ability to solve problems, digital services covering ease of using online tools, and quality of financial advice.

Among participants across all countries, trustworthiness was deemed the most important aspect of a bank, followed by digital services and customer service.

Trustworthiness first. Digital services second. That explains a lot about why the Philippine list looks the way it does — three of the top five are digital-first banks. Filipino consumers are telling Forbes: we trust these apps, and we would tell our friends to use them.

The Full Philippine List — 2026

From the image of the Forbes ranking:

Rank

                    Bank

Founded

1

MariBank Philippines

1965

2

GoTyme Bank

2019

3

Bank of the Philippine Islands

1851

4

Union Bank (Philippines)

1968

5

Maya Bank

2022

6

Metropolitan Bank & Trust

1962

7

LANDBANK

1963

8

Philippine National Bank

1916

The mix is interesting. BPI has been around since 1851 — one of the oldest banks in Asia. Maya Bank was founded in 2022 — barely four years old. Both made the same Forbes list. That tells you something about how quickly digital banking has earned Filipino trust.

MariBank Philippines — Why It Is Number 1

MariBank Philippines, formerly SeaBank Philippines, is a rural bank that offers a mobile banking application enabling you to manage your finances seamlessly on your mobile phone, anytime and anywhere. You can send and receive transactions from both MariBank and non-MariBank users, all while earning competitive interest rates with no additional fees and no minimum balance. MariBank is part of Sea Limited — the global consumer internet company behind Garena, Shopee, and Monee.

If you have Shopee on your phone — you are already one account away from MariBank. The connection matters because it means the infrastructure, the security, and the financial backing come from one of Southeast Asia's largest technology companies.

The inclusion of digital-first banks such as MariBank, GoTyme, and Maya shows the growing role of online platforms in everyday Filipino banking.

What MariBank does well, from my personal experience:

No maintaining balance. Open an account with zero. Keep zero. No monthly fees for being a low-balance account holder. For a Job Order government employee watching every peso — this matters.

Interest credited every midnight. Interest earnings are credited every midnight. Not monthly. Not quarterly. Every night your balance earns and reflects. You can watch it grow daily if you are that kind of person. I am that kind of person. 😄

Online loans — and this is where I have personal experience.

I just got my first online loan through MariBank. The process was done entirely through the app. No branch visit. No fixer. No photocopied documents submitted across a counter. Application on the phone, approval notification on the phone, disbursement to the account — all digital, all fast.

I am not going to share the specific amount because that is between me and MariBank. But I will say: the process was smooth enough that I immediately thought — I need to write about this.

For Filipinos who have always found formal bank loans intimidating — the branch visits, the requirements, the waiting — a mobile loan process that is this straightforward is genuinely significant.

Maya Bank — Number 5, Already on My Phone

Maya is not new to this blog. I use Maya linked to my PayPal for online transactions — domain renewals, digital subscriptions, anything that requires a card with international capability. I wrote about the PayPal-Maya connection here.

Maya Bank offers a base interest rate of 3.5% going up to 15% if you accomplish specific tasks and milestones — making it one of the highest potential interest rates among Philippine digital banks. The 15% is not automatic — it requires specific account activity — but even the base 3.5% is competitive against traditional savings accounts.

Maya at Number 5 on a Forbes global ranking, four years after being founded, is a statement about how quickly Filipino digital banking has matured.

What This List Means for Ordinary Filipinos

Around 80 percent of banks kept their ranking from last year, suggesting that while digital-only banks are gaining ground, many customers still value physical branches for complex transactions.

The honest read of this list: digital banks are winning on trust and convenience for everyday banking — savings, transfers, small loans, bill payments. Traditional banks are still the choice for complex transactions — mortgages, business loans, foreign currency, large institutional needs.

For the average Filipino worker managing day-to-day finances through a phone — the top of this list is where you want to be.

No maintaining balance. No queuing. No branch hours. Just an app, a verified account, and your money working while you sleep.

Should You Download MariBank?

If you:

  • Want a savings account with no maintaining balance and no fees
  • Want interest credited to your account every single night
  • Are curious about digital loan options without branch visits
  • Already use Shopee and want your finances in the same ecosystem

Then yes — download it. Sign up easily with no maintaining balance and no account fees. It is a BSP-regulated rural bank. Forbes just ranked it Number 1 in the Philippines. My experience with it — savings and loan — has been smooth enough to write this post about it.

Not sponsored. Just a government IT worker in Surigao City sharing what is working on his phone. 😄

Financial Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Interest rates and loan terms change — always check the official MariBank and Maya apps for current rates before making financial decisions. I am not a financial advisor. Think of this post as a diagnostic report — your financial decisions are yours to run.

Before I Close This Tab

The Forbes list surprised me — not because the banks are good, but because I was already using two of them before the ranking came out.

That is either good instinct or good luck. Probably a little of both.

MariBank at Number 1. Maya at Number 5. LANDBANK at Number 7 — and as a government employee, my salary goes through a government bank that also made a Forbes global ranking. That is a quietly reassuring fact.

Philippine banking in 2026 is in a different place than it was even five years ago. The digital banks on this list did not exist a decade ago. Some of them did not exist five years ago. And they are now being ranked alongside BPI — a bank founded in 1851 — on a global Forbes list.

Your money deserves a bank that works as hard as you do. In 2026, several of those banks are apps on your phone.

Download responsibly. Save consistently. Borrow only what you can repay.

And check if MariBank is crediting your interest tonight at midnight. It probably is.

-Mavs

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