PNB eyes higher share of remittance business

MANILA, Philippines - Listed Philippine National Bank of airline and tobacco magnate Lucio Tan is looking at increasing its market share in the highly competitive cash remittance market by three-to five-percent over the next three years.

Benjamin Oliva, first senior vice president of the Global Filipino Banking Group at PNB, said the bank is set to raise its share in the remittance business to 23 to 25 percent over the next three years from the current level of a little over 20 percent.

“Increasing market share has always been the strategic direction, that is why we are not just looking at the remittance as a purely remittance business,” Oliva said.

He pointed out PNB is enhancing its services to overseas Filipinos by offering free Healthy Ka Pinoy (HKP) emergency medical card for customers who receive at least three remittances with a minimum amount of P12,000 each from their relatives abroad.

“We are over 20 percent over a period of time so we are moving aggressively in terms of differentiating ourselves in the market,” he said.

Latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed cash sent home by Filipinos abroad grew 4.8 percent to $14.16 billion from January to July this year compared to $13.51 billion in the same period last year.

The HKP card is the first of its kind in the Philippines and is an innovative product of PNB and PNB Life, enabling cardholders to seek free emergency treatment of up to P15,000 at any of the 890 hospitals and clinics accredited by EastWest Healthcare.

The HKP card was offered to Filipinos in Hong Kong and Japan in 2014.

“We continue to differentiate by providing added value services like every aspiration of the Filipino is to provide a home for his family. So we make them available to overseas Filipinos thru the Filipino home loan program,” Oliva said.

The HKP card is being expanded to other countries such as the US, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Middle East, and Guam.

Oliva said the product would help boost the efforts of the government to expand the country’s insurance penetration rate.