MANILA, Philippines - The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has snatched the 2014 Best Retail Bank (in the Philippines), and the Best Payment Product awards. The bank received the award at The Asian Banker’s International Excellence in Retail Financial Services 2014 Awards ceremony, held at the Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney, Australia in April 2. The bank’s positive financial performance is the result of revenue and profit growth, higher fee income and a reduction in its cost-to- income ratio. Its current and savings deposit growth remained strong in 2013, growing by a dramatic 43 percent, taking its market share to 21.28 percent. The bank introduced cost-efficient service paths, such as ATMs and cash deposit machines as well as online and mobile banking channels. It introduced BPI Express Assist in 2012, which has a queue system where the customer can input transaction details. Currently, electronic channels account for 63 percent of the bank’s total transactions, enrolling 377,000 customers in the various mobile banking platforms, increasing the bank’s user-base by 86.4 percent as compared to 2012. The bank’s My ePrepaid MasterCard helps them access online shopping wherever MasterCard is accepted. The bank now has 1.6 million active prepaid cards. The prepaid portfolio for BPI increased nine percent in 2011 to 2012 to a growth of 43 percent in 2012 to 2013. My ePrepaid MasterCard is the key revenue driver for BPI Prepaid Cards, contributing more than 50 percent of total business revenues.