BPI, Union Bank ranked among Asia’s best

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and the Union Bank of the Philippines (Union Bank) has been ranked among the best in the Asia Pacific region after receiving special banking awards by a prestigious regional banking publication.

The Asian Banker held its fourth annual Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards recently during the full-day program of the publication’s first Asia Pacific Heads of Retail Banking Annual Meeting held in Beijing, People’s Republic of China.

Nearly 100 bankers, including many heads of retail and chief executive officers, from 45 Asian banks.Thirty-five bankers from 17 different Chinese banks were also present.

The Best Retail Bank in Asia 2004 award went to HSBC (Hong Kong) while the Best Regional Retail Banking Business award was handed to Citibank Asia Pacific.

Chanda Kochhar, executive director and head of retail, ICICI Bank (India) was named Retail Banker of the Year 2004.

The Best Retail Banks by country are: Brunei-HSBC; China, Best Retail Bank in China is Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Best Joint Stock Retail Bank is China Merchants Bank; Hong Kong-HSBC (Hong Kong); India-ICICI Bank; Indonesia-Bank Central Asia; Japan-Shinsei Bank; Pakistan - Askari Commercial Bank; Philippines-Bank of the Philippines Islands; Singapore-DBS Bank; South Korea-Kookmin Bank; Taiwan-Chinatrust Commercial Bank; Thailand-Siam Commercial Bank; and, Vietnam-ANZ Vietnam. The winners of the Awards for Excellence in Products and Processes are: Excellence in Automobile Lending –Bank of the Philippine Islands; Excellence in Credit Card Management – Union Bank of the Philippines; Best Consumer Credit Product – Standard Chartered (Malaysia)-Quick Cash; Best Deposit-Linked Product-UO – FirstZero Home Loan; Best Internet-only Bank – Japan Net Bank; Best Retail Banking Branch Innovation – Shinsei Bank; Excellence in Internet Banking – Bank of East Asia; Excellence in Mortgages and Home Equity – Korea First Bank; Excellence in Multi-Channel Distribution – Bangkok Bank; Excellence in Retail Banking Strategy and Execution – Taishin International Bank; Excellence in Retail Risk Management – HDFC Bank; Excellence in Sub-Prime Lending – Bank Rakyat Indonesia; and, Excellence in Wealth Management – Hang Seng Bank.

In her presentation, Kochhar showed how the bank grew from 3,000 to 12 million customers in 10 years in a market without a developed credit bureau.

Among the many areas covered, she showed the importance of channel analytics and explained how ATM cash forecasting to improve customer satisfaction while saving costs by minimizing excess cash. By focusing on reducing costs, she explained, banks can also find ways of excelling in areas of high competition.