On January 6, 2006, Banco de Oro Universal Bank submitted a merger offer to the bank, with Banco de Oro as the surviving entity. Under the proposed offer, Banco de Oro would swap 1.6 of its shares for every 1 share of Equitable-PCI (The merger occurred, but BDO Shareholders were to swap 1.8 BDO shares for every EPCI share). As a second option, Banco de Oro also offered to base the swap ratio on the book values of both banks to be assessed by an independent accounting firm using international accounting standards. With the success of this merger, Banco de Oro became the second largest bank, with assets of P613 billion, after the current industry leader, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, with assets of more than P641.5 billion. The merger demoted the Bank of the Philippine Islands to third place, with P582 billion in assets. BDO has since surpassed Metrobank in asset, loan and deposit sizes to become the largest lender in the Philippines.