A branchless business model for a banking institution will give depositors more value for the money they put in, ING Bank said on Thursday, as the bank will not have to shoulder the operational costs of running a traditional bank branch.
ING Philippines Hans B. Sicat, country head of the Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation’s Philippine unit, said they are likely to offer more interest to their depositors’ savings, as well as shoulder the fees of online transactions as long as their operations are fully digital in the country.
“That is the difference for full digital banking. We don’t have a brick and mortar proposition,” Sicat told reporters in a meeting they organized on Thursday. “Here we are demonstrating the digital proposition. We are paying out multiples of brick and mortar banks.”
Among the bank’s flagship programs is their 4-percent per annum interest rate for new and existing depositors. Any amount deposited to ING until the end of January 2020 will earn 4 percent in interests, while most savings accounts’ interest in the local scene hovers at around 1 percent.
The bank is also giving a rebate of P100 per transaction with every successful electronic bank transfer to ING. All fees for the interbank transfer are also being waived by the bank.
In November last year, ING launched its new business model in the Philippines as the first all-digital bank in the country.
For next year, Sicat said more digital products are in the pipeline, such as the launch of the payments platform in the first half of 2020 and the takeoff of their consumer lending scheme by the second half of the year—all via their digital platforms.
Sicat said they are looking to grow their client base this year through more digital products that will benefit consumers more not only via convenience, but also via payouts and more competitive prices.
As of this year, Sicat said they saw over 1 million downloads of their ING Bank app, and more than half of this is being translated to actual bank account holders.
“Being the first digital bank in the Philippines, we will not be surprised if our customers will initially think that we are a bank composed of machines and chatbots,” Sicat said, adding that their upcoming events, such as their newly launched Christmas installation in Bonifacio Global City will allow them to interact with their customers in a “different way.”