E-banking seen to spur growth of economy, SMEs

The projected prevalence of electronic banking – through either Internet, telephone or mobile, or any convergence thereof – can boost the economy and speed up the growth of small and medium enterprises, or SMEs.

Mary Anne Tolentino, assistant vice president of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, bared this, citing the expected acceleration in the velocity of money, or the number of times that money would virtually change hands because of the resulting ease in financial transactions.

"This means more people and companies will benefit from the brisk business activity that digitized banking can trigger, arising from such a time- and cost-saving convenience," she said.

"It also means that the entire supply chain can be strongly linked up electronically through the digitized banking system, thus making market access simply a dial away," she added.

Tolentino said e-banking could also serve as a great equalizer for SMEs that would tap into the system to achieve cost-efficient financial operations, while gaining foothold in big corporate and sectoral markets.

Reports have it that some 330,000 or 34 percent of the country’s regular Internet users are also online bankers.

Yet, even more convenient than Internet banking is the emerging use of the mobile phone for online payments. With the country’s 16.5 million mobile phone subscribers, the market is imminently getting ripe for this new banking mode.

At the same time, banks could downscale their branch operations and put up more of those electronic banking kiosks instead.

"This is especially so in the light of the increasing availability, affordability and market acceptance of security technology for e-commerce," said Tolentino, also the president of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS).

Tolentino said e-banking would be discussed thoroughly at the PICS-organized 2nd National E-Commerce Congress and Exhibit slated at the Philippine Trade Training Center on Dec. 2-4.

The three-day event will help bring the country’s SMEs into the digitized environment to boost their growth and contributions to the national economy. SMEs comprise a big bulk of the local business community.

With the theme "Strengthening SME competitiveness through IT and E-Commerce," the congress will enable companies to get started properly in e-banking and all the other aspects of e-commerce.

Moreover, the participants will catch the latest trends in mobile and wireless technologies as tools for e-business, network with industry leaders and professionals via one-on-one consultations, and expand their customer base by promoting their products and services to the country’s growing SME market.

More details on the event can be obtained from Fiera de Manila (tel. nos. 899-6893, 896-0639 and 896-0637; e-mail address [email protected], and websites www.fmi.com.ph and www.pics.org.ph).

Aside from SMEs, expected to benefit immensely from the congress are entrepreneurs, chief information officers, wireless content providers, financial and e-bankers, IT/MIS managers, IT project managers, cyber lawyers, policymakers, legislators, educators, Web developers, law enforcement personnel, and venture capital firms, among many other groups.

The congress is sponsored by Globe Telecom Inc., Innove, Globe Quest, PLDT, BancNet, Equitable PCIBank, Computer Associates, Microsoft, Pacific Internet, Manila Times, Business World, Business World Online Inc., Computer Times, Computer World, IT Update, iTpros.ph, Softrigger Interactive and Web Philippines Inc.