BPI sees Q4 surge in e-bill payments

MANILA, Philippines - Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI), the banking unit of the Ayala group, is projecting the level of its electronic bills payments to increase to 30-35 percent in the last quarter of the year, a bank official said.

BPI senior vice president Manuel Tagaza, in an interview with The STAR, said bills payment done electronically has been growing by at least 20 percent for the past years.

The increase in the number of clients who pay their bills through Internet, phone and mobile banking, Tagaza said, would be driven by the impact of the present promotional and marketing initiatives being done by the bank.

Tagaza said BPI 24/7 banking, the electronic banking platform of BPI, has launched a new promo which would not only lead to a heightened utilization of their phone/internet banking services, but also promote local tourism.

In partnership with the Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippine Hotel Reservations Service Inc. (PHRS) and Zest Airways Inc. (Zest Air), BPI has introduced the “Get Out More” campaign which gives clients a chance to win an all expense paid trip for four to the top seven destinations in the country just by paying bills online, over the phone, or through their mobile phones.

“Seven lucky winners of an all expense paid trip to Bohol, Boracay, Cebu, Legaspi, Iloilo, and Puerto Prinsesa will be chosen. Each winner will receive round-trip airfare, transfer for four via ZestAir, three days (two nights) accommodations and pocket money of P24,7000,” Carlo Gatuslao, BPI assistant vice president said.

Gatuslao said with a minimum bill payment of P50 made through any of the BPI 24/7 channels-Express Online, Express Phone or Express Mobile, clients get to earn a raffle entry to the promo. Two raffle entries would be awarded to the first qualified payment made to a unique merchant reference/account number during the promo period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 31, 2012.

Tagaza said BPI is optimistic of the continuing growth in the number of clients banking electronically.

To date, about 73 percent of total transaction of BPI is done electronically and 33 percent are carried out through Internet.

BPI, so far, captures some 1.1 million clients who opted to use Internet for their banking transactions; and some 300,000 and 100,000 clients have been using mobile and phone banking channels of the bank, respectively.

For its part, Zest Air chief marketing and sales officer Alfredo Ramon Herrera said, “Our main goal for taking part in this campaign is to provide full support to BPI and DOT’s campaign, and hopefully, with our affordable fares, we can get more Filipinos to get out more often, try traveling by air and explore the best that the country’s local tourism has to offer.”