With the goal of empowering smaller financial institutions in the countryside for their digitalization efforts, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation’s (RCBC) SynerFi (Synergy in Finance) Open Finance Network signed earlier this month a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with its three pioneering rural bank partners representing the three major island groups of the Philippines.
GR Bank in Luzon, Rural Bank of Ilog in the Visayas and Cantilan Bank in Mindanao were the first three rural banks to be digitally enabled with SynerFi open banking initiatives. Earlier this June, SynerFi officially launched its partnership with the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP).
“RCBC’s SynerFi is meant really to enable, empower and engage our rural banks, MFIs, cooperatives and other small players in the industry to level up and to be part of our massive digitalization efforts in support of the vision of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP),” said Lito Villanueva, RCBC Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer.
The collaboration will not only help the RBAP-member banks in setting up their own digital platforms. It is also expected to help push financial inclusion in the countryside, supporting the BSP’s goals to onboard 70 percent of adult Filipinos into the formal financial system, and in digitalizing 50 percent of payments and other banking transactions by 2023 as outlined in its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap.
“We are truly grateful to RCBC for having us as one of the partner banks to run this program. As a financial institution aiming to innovate and make available secure, transparent and effective banking, GR Bank is eager to fulfill its digitalization goals, and hoping the dream of becoming a digital bank, will finally come true,” said Elizabeth Carlos-Timbol, GR Bank’s Chief Operations Officer. Carlos-Timbol is also the current president of the Rural Bankers Research and Development Foundation.
“We believe that SynerFi’s data-sharing projects will truly empower rural banks in setting up their own digital solution platforms which has become a necessity in today’s circumstances. It will definitely widen the base of financial inclusion especially in the countryside,” said Maria Antonia Abello, President and CEO of the Rural Bank of Ilog.
Enabling cross-border remittances
Aside from pushing for wider financial inclusion in the country, RCBC’s SynerFi, in partnership with ModusBox and VISA, also seeks to establish an easier and more accessible channel for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to send their remittances from other parts of the world.
“While we are progressing with RCBC’s SynerFi, we also had our collaboration with Modusbox and VISA for another use case for this initiative. That is the cross-border remittance pilot that will involve the Singapore-Philippines remittance corridor using the mobile phone number of the beneficiary as the destination account for the transfer and is maintained with the rural bank partner,” Villanueva said.
“We are especially excited with the SynerFi Open Finance initiative together with VISA and ModusBox, which will provide a variety of open banking and payment services through rural banks beginning with the cross-border use case connecting via VISA Direct as a global payments system, the SynerFi as a domestic platform powered by the open source module loop technology,” Cantilan Bank’s Executive Vice President Tanya Hotchkiss added.
The cross-border remittance project will be the first of several breakthrough projects that RCBC’s SynerFi together with its partners is working on to deliver better digital finance solutions to Filipinos. For ModusBox and VISA, this open finance strategy will become the gateway for more interoperable transactions in rural areas, opening better financial access points for individuals and families.
“We’re super-excited to be a part of the SynerFi project. The idea of connecting rural banks in the Philippines is incredible. Fair and equitable financial services are so critical when we are talking in particular of rural areas. That is directly in the mission of ModusBox,” said Steven Haley, economic development manager of ModusBox.
“From a VISA perspective, we are excited to build on our network or networks strategies. Our goal is to be able to enable money movement to anyone, anywhere. Through initiatives such as this, we see this as a way to reach more individuals as we focus on driving digitalization here in the Philippines,” said Dan Wolbert VISA’s country manager for the Philippines and Guam.
“Doing well by doing good has become something that people believe in especially during the pandemic. And with our friends in RBAP and VISA, it’s something that we really do. With us, financial inclusion is important. With us, we realize we link together OFWs with their families wherever they are. This is what I am happy about, being part of a project that makes significant benefit to people’s lives,” RCBC President and CEO Eugene S. Acevedo added.
