RCBC invests over P1B on technology

MANILA, Philippines - Yuchengco-owned Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) has invested around P1 billion over a five-year period to improve its technology in line with its aggressive goal of adding10 million new customers in two years time, a bank official said.

Dennis Bancod, RCBC senior executive vice president and head of the Information Technology Shared Services and Operations Groups, said with this investment, the bank has successfully implemented a new platform that would transform its business and leverage new growth opportunities in an increasingly competitive consumer banking market. 

“RCBC, one of the leading private domestic commercial banks in the Philippines, has grown rapidly over the last five years.  From its current customer base of 3.6 million, the bank has set a goal of having 10 million new customers by 2014,” he said.

RCBC has selected Finacle running on an IBM System server to consolidate data and applications from across disparate systems and establish a single source of customer information.

The bank, Bancod said, would leverage this to anticipate customer needs, create innovative offerings and enrich customer experience through increased personalization.

He said the new solution would also provide the foundation RCBC needs to create value-added services that will increase customer adoption for its MyWallet electronic cash card, one of its more popular products. 

The bank, he added, is targeting to expand its cash card base by four million this year -- more than doubling the 1.8 million users it on-boarded last year.

This core banking-led transformation entailed upgrading 96 application systems, reconfiguring over 400 branches and migrating 3.2 million customers. With the potential to impact three million transactions month-on-month, the transformation was orchestrated with no disruption in services to RCBC clients.

RCBC will also use this new solution to reach “the unbanked” -- farmers, small business owners and other clients in provincial sites where ATMs and bank branches are difficult to operate.

With the new system, RBBC will be able to offer this under-served market new services like micro-financing, and make banking services available through expanded partnerships such as with grocery stores.

“As businesses in developing markets like the Philippines expand their infrastructures to support economic growth, the need for systems with high levels of transaction processing capability increases,” said Mariels Almeda Winhoffer, country general manager for IBM Philippines.