Security Bank rolling out Apple Pay, Google Pay

MANILA, Philippines — Security Bank Corp. is targeting the rollout of Apple Pay and Google Pay in the second half of 2027 as it upgrades its core credit card system and seeks to deepen its presence in digital payments.

Security Bank president and CEO Victor Lee said the lender could not introduce the mobile payment services this year because the bank is still changing its underlying credit card infrastructure.

“We’re changing our system, our core credit card system,” Lee said during a recent media roundtable.

Asked when Apple Pay and Google Pay could become available to Security Bank customers, Lee said: “Both by the second half next year.”

The planned rollout will allow eligible Security Bank cardholders to link their cards to the digital wallets and make payments through compatible mobile devices, extending the lender’s push to make more banking and payment transactions available digitally.

Lee said Apple Pay could be particularly relevant to Security Bank’s wealth management clients, a segment that forms part of the lender’s three-year growth strategy.

“About 80 percent of our wealth customers are Apple users,” he said. “So you need to be relevant with them.”

Beyond international mobile wallets, Security Bank also sees greater adoption of quick response (QR)-based payments as an opportunity for traditional banks to reclaim a larger share of transactions that have shifted to electronic wallets.

Lee cited the experience of markets such as Thailand and Cambodia, where he said greater QR adoption has allowed banks to become more directly involved in everyday payments.

“When QR comes out, banks typically can take back their payments business,” he said, adding that the opportunity is not necessarily limited to handling the payment itself, but also includes keeping the underlying funds within a customer’s bank account.

Lee argued that banks retain an advantage in holding customers’ larger savings balances even as electronic wallets have become widely used for smaller transactions.

“Would you put your entire savings into a wallet?” Lee said. “I think that trust gap is still quite evident. You look for micro-payments, but you don’t want to put your entire savings.”

He said making bank-based payments more convenient, particularly when combined with debit and credit cards and interoperable QR payments, could strengthen banks’ relevance in customers’ daily financial activity.

The push fits into Security Bank’s broader strategy of using digital channels not only to process transactions but to deepen customer relationships.

The bank has said its retail digital platform has 1.71 million customers, with about 65 percent considered active users. It is also rolling out an upgraded platform for corporate and micro, small and medium enterprise clients as it seeks to capture more payments, collections and other transaction banking activity.

Security Bank is separately studying whether to expand its offerings around the Personal Equity and Retirement Account, a voluntary retirement savings program that provides tax incentives for qualified investments.

Lee said Security Bank’s trust business is looking at the opportunity as the lender also explores ways to encourage more Filipinos, particularly younger investors, to participate in the capital markets.