its own field of expertise. Effects of the merger If the merger were to take place, Banco de Oro would move up into large capitalized company status, defined as a company whose capital stands at a minimum of $700 million. The merger of both banks would result in the merged company having a market capitalization of two billion dollars. Aside from that, it would also have to consolidate the large Equitable PCI branch and ATM network under the Banco de Oro banner. If the two banks were to merge, the new Banco de Oro would have a total of 685 branches and a wide-reaching ATM network. Problems with transition could mostly result with the conversion of ATMs: Equitable PCI FASTellers(Equitable EBC Tellers and PCI FASTellers) are both linked to MegaLink(Equitable Banking Corporation) and BancNet(PCI Bank) while Banco de Oro Smartellers are linked to Expressnet (with ties to MegaLink and BancNet respectively). Also, Equitable PCI ATM cards are linked to Visa Electron and/or Visa PLUS while Banco de Oro ATM cards are either local or, in the case of the new BDO International ATM Card, linked to MasterCard (branded as MasterCard Electronic), Maestro and Cirrus. Branch transition and consolidation usually run smoothly, as exemplified by the consolidation of the branches of United Overseas Bank under the Banco de Oro banner. BDO has also inherited the 'Jose Velarde' account of former president Joseph Estrada. A problem arising from this could be that this merger could trigger a wave of mergers and acquisitions that could result in an oligopoly, with only few competitors. The Bangko Sentral is determined to stop this from ever happening in the event that it does. Stable outlook On February 1, 2008, Fitch Ratings announced: "The Outlook on BDOU's ratings is stable given a benign economic environment. And while integration risk is a factor, a successful merger of the two banks will provide ratings momentum, if combined with some capital strengthening in particular; BDO will particularly benefit from EPCI's good franchise among commercial entities and consumers, and well-developed operations in fee-generating areas such as trust banking, remittances and credit cards. Significant revenue and cost synergies should arise from the integration of the two banks, due to complete by mid-2008, as led by BDO's very competent and driven management; BDO will raise P 10 billion of Tier 2 capital, and boosting its capital adequacy ratio by 2 percent to 3