The Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) has been cited as Best Cash Management Bank Philippines 2021 by the Global Banking and Finance Awards (GBAF) for its masterfully executing a digital pivot in corporate servicing amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Upon imposition of the lockdown in 2020, the Global Transaction Banking Group of RCBC led the initiative to migrate its corporate clients to digitized cash management services to enable them to continue their financial business transactions given the quarantine restrictions.
The group initially switched clients to electronic funds transfer (EFT) platforms that utilize PESONet and InstaPay, which effectively eliminated difficulties in their disbursement activities. As a result, barely a month into the lockdown the bank saw a surge in payments transactions, with April EFT volumes 119% higher than the previous month. By year-end 2020, Corporate payments had expanded by 278% vs. 2019, of which 90% were now electronic vs. only 10% by check.
Later in the year, the bank introduced CheckScan, a first-in-market check collections solution that efficiently and seamlessly allows corporate clients to deposit checks remotely by providing them with the equipment needed for the rapid scanning of checks and uploading of the resulting images to the bank for same day value credit to their operating accounts.
A mobile version of the CheckScan was launched in May 2021 for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that may not require a high-capacity check processing solution.
In March 2021, RCBC launched PayPortal, an add-on facility which enables corporate clients to receive payments from their customers electronically from almost all available payment rails in the country.
“With the recent launch of these digital cash management innovations and the very positive market response as indicated by our healthy customer pipeline, the RCBC Corporate Cash Management Team joins its multi-awarded colleagues on the Retail Digital Services side in reaching significant milestones towards its vision for a truly digital future for its customers,” RCBC’s Executive Vice President and Global Transaction Banking Group head Emmanuel Narciso said.
The Global Banking & Finance Review (GBAF) awards recognize companies who have excelled in particular areas of expertise in the financial world.
The awards honor innovation, achievement, strategy, progressive and inspirational changes taking place within the global financial sector.