Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) sealed a partnership covering six areas of collaboration with the country’s largest biller aggregator and widest multi-channel payment platform, CIS Bayad Center, Inc. (Bayad Center). Part of this strategic partnership is the integration of RCBC’s digital basic deposit account, lending and Malayan’s insurance products into Bayad Center’s mobile app.
The inclusion of bank and insurance products into Bayad Center’s mobile app will enable its over 10 million customer-base to have seamless access to basic banking transactions such as savings account opening, loan application, travel, health and personal accident insurance, making basic financial products more accessible and convenient for every Filipino.
“This strategic collaboration with RCBC complements our digital agenda focused on purposeful automation and transformation. All these digital financial services such as savings, lending and insurance would complete our compelling proposition to our customers nationwide,” Ray Espinosa, Bayad Center Chairman and Meralco President and CEO said.
“This synergy is indeed a milestone. A reality that would redound to the benefit of all the unbanked and underserved Filipinos. We are committed in making this a huge success,” Eugene Acevedo, RCBC President and CEO said.
Among the other areas of collaboration included in the agreement covers cash-in and cash-out facility for RCBC’s DiskarTech initiative in Bayad Center’s 34,000 touchpoints, deployment of RCBC’s mobile ATM in select 500 Bayad Center Branches to cater to conditional cash transfer beneficiaries encashing their social cash grants with their issued LANDBANK ATM cash cards, and the introduction of the Bankard-Bayad Center card, the country’s first utility credit card for ease of enrollment and automatic payment of customer’s monthly bills.
Using a single application programming interface, Bayad Center’s over 2,000 billers will be available in the bank’s mobile app, online banking and Diskartech. In compliance with data privacy laws, RCBC will also utilize the alternative credit scoring algorithm for new-to-credit Filipinos enabling Bayad Center app users to quickly avail of affordable and immediate access to credit. Credit decisioning will be done using the customer’s utility bill payment behavior upon his/her explicit consent.
“This shared vision of providing more innovative and creative ways for Filipinos to have better access to financial services with Bayad Center accelerates our goal of having a financially inclusive nation,” RCBC Chief Innovations and Inclusion Officer Lito Villanueva said.
“Together with RCBC, we are able to provide the luxury of convenience for providing a whole suite of digital financial services beyond payments by utilizing the next-generation mobile payment application,” Bayad Center President and CEO Manny Tuason said.