Personal loans boost Citibank Savings’ growth

Citibank Savings Inc. (Citibank Savings) is pouring a lot of energy into the personal loans market, and it promises to spring more surprises in the consumer savings as well as lending segment.

Citibank Savings is a subsidiary of Citibank NA. It was formed after Citibank acquired Insular Savings Bank early last year.

"There is a huge potential in the personal lending market, and we are offering these without collateral," Jeffrey Choa, Citibank Savings president, said. "It can also be a vehicle for remittances for beneficiaries of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and migrant Filipinos."

Personal loans can range from individuals to private corporate to local government unit and national government agencies.

The personal lending market can also open up potentials for credit and debit cards not to mention pre-paid loaded cards.

Citibank is a leader in the credit and debit card market in the Philippines, and it is widely accepted that the formation of a thrift bank facilitated the US-based banking insitution unhampered entry to the Philippine consumer market.

It has operating licences for foreign currency deposit units (FCDUs), trust and fudiciary, quasi-banking (QB), and government securities dealer (GSED).

Citibank Savings acquired 36 branches which is presently operational. These are located in 23 areas in Metro Manila, seven in Luzon; and six in Visayas and Mindanao.

Choa admitted that they were still improving the infrastucture for the remittance business with the automated teller machine (ATM) money card with an alliance through BancNet and MasterCard.

Late this year, it will launch an auto loan product and next year mortgage or property loans. And credit and debit cards will not be far behind.

Meanwhile, Citibank Savings reported a 55-percent growth of its savings and current account deposits. It remains bullish that they can duplicate if not double deposits with the introduction of a client-friendly savings product.

Power Savings offers as much as five percent interest rate with no required maintaining balance, and an ATM without fees when transacted in over 6,500 ATMs nationwide. It also offers an array of peso and dollar-denominated savings and time deposit products.

In the pipeline is a dollar checking account, phone and online billing products including Internet banking facilities which will compliment its planned small and medium enterprise (SME) banking products.

Choa admitted that they were not looking at realizing huge net profits at the interim as the focus is capital expenditures for consolidation and expansion of its operations.

"We have already spent over P1 billion after the acquisition for banch rationalization and reloacation and other expenditures to get us of the ground," the bank president revealed.

In fact, it has trained over 100 sales people that will be spread out in all its 36 branches equivalent to 30 percent of each branches personnel.

Citibank Savings continues to invest heavily on technology while introducing more freebies like personal insurance, more products, improving geological locations, establishing networks and alliances. – Ted Torres