By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
There is more reason for one of the largest universal banks in the country to celebrate its 60th founding anniversary, as they bagged the coveted award of being hailed as the Philippines’ “Most Innovative Internet Banking Service Provider” by a London-based financial publication.
The international award bestowed by The Global Economics Limited to Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) coincided with their company’s diamond anniversary truly calls for e double jubilation as another feather on their cap is added.
Global Economics Limited is a new magazine that provides in-depth analyses of current issues in the global business sector. Its awards program “reflect(s) and recognize(s) the achievements and excellence within the global banking industry.”
The prestigious accolade follows an earlier award in June as the country’s “Best Digital Bank” by a Hong Kong-based institutional investment magazine Alpha Southeast Asia.
As RCBC looks back on its heritage of strong partnerships in the last six decades, the bank also brings its core values to the future. These distinctions follow RCBC’s aggressive digitalization efforts that saw exponential growth and adoption this year.
According to Lito Villanueva, executive vice president, and chief innovation and inclusion officer of RCBC, the phenomenal metamorphosis of RCBC and the team working behind this transition felt fulfilled.
“From bricks to clicks, through the years RCBC has been among the industry’s leaders in shaping what we now know as the digital today,” Villanueva added.
RCBC’s foresight and proactive stance towards digitalization proved essential with the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the first quarter of the year. The bank was not only able to sustain its services throughout the strict community quarantines but also introduced creative solutions to new pain points of the public, added Villanueva.
Meanwhile, RCBC President and Chief Executive Officer Eugene S. Acevedo added, “We are honored to be recognized by the international observers on the measures we have taken to ensure safe, easy, and continuous services to our clients and on the efforts to bring to the fold of financial security the many unbanked and underserved members of our society,” said
“At the same time, we are also humbled by the work that lies ahead. Filipinos continue to face an uphill battle against COVID-19. We remain proactive in finding solutions to possible pain points during this unprecedented period of our history,” the President and CEO of RCBC concluded.
RCBC was the first private universal bank granted authority in April by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Monetary Board to accept government money to quickly disburse its social amelioration fund. It is one of the seven requests of the bank granted approval by the regulator within the first month of the community quarantine. All these were geared to offer the public with alternative banking options through digital solutions.
The bank, through its DiskarTech Lite Disbursement Platform, is one of the financial service providers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) financial service providers for the digital disbursement of the second tranche of the social amelioration fund.
RCBC’s handheld automated teller machine service, ATM Go, has also been endorsed by DSWD as an offsite payment facility for the continued disbursement of its conditional-cash-transfer project Pantawid ng Pamilyang Pilipino Program and social pension for indigent senior citizens. It is the first private universal bank permitted to aid in the efforts of the agency.
Combining these two RCBC platforms, it has disbursed PHP 9.1 billion for conditional-cash-transfer and social amelioration program beneficiaries during the pandemic benefitting more than 2.4 million families or 12 million individuals.
“As Filipinos flock to digital channels to sustain their financial service requirements, we welcome our new and old clients to our many products that cater to their different needs. We are aggressively expanding our digital ecosystem and introducing new features to match the accelerating adoption,” Villanueva concluded.
