An official of the Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said he hopes that half of their account holders would shift to digital transactions by the end of the year.
In a briefing on Tuesday, Oct. 29, BPI chief operating officer Ramon Jocson said they have 8.5 million accounts, 1.8 million of which have passbooks.
Jocson said new account holders usually access the bank’s electronic channels once they open their accounts. He said that once account holders realize the advantage of accessing the digital platform, “the adoption is quite fast.”
“But it is quite a challenge trying to get them [into digital banking],” he said. “So our target right now is to get to at least 50 percent (of the account holders to use the digital platform) by the end of the year,” he added.
Asked how much BPI has allocated for their technology-related spending, Jocson declined to give specific figures, noting that “it is a part of our whole IT (information technology) budget.”
He said major banks in Asia allocate about 7.5 percent to 8 percent of their total revenues to IT budget. “We also allocate about the same level,” Jocson said.
At the press briefing, the bank launched its digital ecosystem, which has two components — Open Banking and BPI Digital Platforms.
BPI chief digital officer Noel Santiago said open banking is “far-reaching and with near-limitless possibilities.” “We are capitalizing on this to grow our network of trusted partners so that clients can easily and conveniently transact via one app or website,” he said.
The bank has partnered with nine entities including Lazada, GCash, and Paymaya, to offer 36 services as a way of further aiding their clients’ needs. It also launched its conversational banking app called “Bea of BPI”, which serves as a personal banker. — Joann Villanueva (PNA)
