Although some of the country’s legacy lenders have expressed disinterest in operating a digital version of themselves, the digital banking space this year is seen to heat up significantly as six more digital competitors become operational.
Bankero Lito Villanueva, Chief Innovation & Inclusion Officer as well as Executive Vice President at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), said six licensees granted authority by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are scheduled to become operational this year.
“Massive competition will be in full play. This is going to be an exciting year for everyone,” the executive said at the lender’s online press briefing today.
The shift to the digital sphere is one of the bank’s initiatives to ensure that the 75 percent increase in the value of digital transactions last year is sustained down the line.
RCBC reported a 70 percent increase in its InstaPay transactions and another 191 percent growth in its PESONet offering to clients.
Villanueva said the heart of all these initiatives and offerings is making sure that its collaboration with the various players in the industry, especially with the fintech companies the lender works with, is sustained.
According to him, RCBC’s two digital offerings separately targeted at both the affluent and mass market is showing an adoption rate of 5 percent in volume and value terms in 2021.
The intent is to continue encouraging its client base to adopt the digital offering as a good amount of bank resources have been allocated for the services.
Villanueva said the expectation is for the investments to contribute to aggregate earnings after four years.
