subsidiary of Banco de Oro in 2007. By 1970, among the Philippine's five largest banks holding almost 50 percent of all assets in the banking industry, namely China Banking Corporation, Citibank, the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Equitable PCI Bank, in addition to the formerly government-owned Philippine National Bank were under the control of Chinese shareholders. By 1995, banks owned by Filipinos of Chinese ancestry had captured an even greater share of the Philippine's financial services sector after the formerly government-owned Philippine National Bank was partially privatized as four of the top five banks that were substantially controlled by Chinese shareholders claimed 48 percent of all bank assets and over 60 percent of all those held by private domestic commercial banks. By the mid-1990s, Filipinos of Chinese ancestry controlled 40 percent of the national corporate equity. In terms of industry distribution, Chinese-owned companies account for a quarter of the financial services sector. Today, the overwhelming majority of the Philippines's nine principal banks in addition to the formerly state-owned Philippine National Bank are now under the ownership of Chinese shareholders, such as the Allied Banking Corporation, Banco de Oro Group, China Banking Corporation (Chinabank), East West Banking Corporation, Metrobank group, Philippine Trust Company (Philtrust Bank), Rizal Commercial Banking group, Security Bank Corporation (Security Bank) and the United Coconut Planters Bank. Most of these banks comprise a larger part of an umbrella owned family conglomerate with assets exceeding $100 billion pesos. The total combined assets of all the Philippine's commercial banks under Chinese ownership account for 25.72 percent of all the total assets in the entire Filipino commercial banking system. Among the Philippines's 35 banks, shareholders of Chinese ancestry on average control 35 percent of total banking equity. There are also 23 Filipino insurance agencies that are Chinese-owned, with some branches overseas and in Hong Kong. Of the 500 real estate companies operating in the Philippines, 120 are owned by Filipinos of Chinese ancestry with the firms mostly specializing in real estate investment, land, and property development, and construction and are mainly concentrated in Metropolitan Manila. Filipinos of Chinese ancestry have cornered the Philippine real estate investment markets, land, and property sectors which for a long time had been controlled by Spanish Filipinos. Initially, the Chinese were not allowed to own land until acquiring Filipino citizenship in the 1970s. Presently, many of the biggest real estate development operators in the Philippines are