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In a bid to spur lending to SMEs, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) has reengineered its business processes to help SMEs gain faster access to financial services.
The bank’s transformation, which started in 2019, involved the use of data analytics, streamlining of processes, and employing the use of cloud-based technology while ensuring customer support through remote setup. These changes have resulted in customized solutions and faster credit availment for businesses.
“One of the biggest challenges for SMEs is access to financing,” RCBC First Senior Vice President and SME Group head Ma. Angela Tinio said. “Being able to lessen the turnaround time will help them significantly.”
The bank was able to simplify its manual end-to-end process by 50 percent, while its auto-credit investigation (CI) capability resulting from the integration between Sales Cloud and third-party bureaus has reduced the CI turnaround time from one day to only four hours. With the credit checking process streamlined, turnaround time has been reduced to as fast as eight (8) days.
The bank also worked on equipping its relationship managers to support its clients remotely, enabling them access to the system for more seamless coordination.
Tinio added that there is a greater focus now on customer experience and that the business process re-engineering efforts done for the past two years are in line with the objective of making the customer journey smoother and more delightful.
The use of data analytics has been an integral part of the transformation which has provided useful insights in analyzing the specific clients’ needs and creating customized solutions for them.
Furthermore, the bank’s cross-selling initiatives as well as its creation of an ecosystem to achieve a one-stop shop where clients can avail of other bank products, was also implemented to further help SMEs.
Although there was no reduction of service fees observed for transactions, SME customers were benefiting from less courier or travel expenses since RCBC now accepts documents submitted online.
RCBC is looking at further integrating these processes through an end-to-end platform which will include client onboarding through online application, loans processing with the ease of document submission, and account management that allows loan payments and access to all RCBC products and business solutions.