AZAGREB, Croatia-based cloud-based banking software company on March 15 said they see a huge potential for their product specifically in the country’s rural-banking industry.
“The Philippines is a big market and we are looking at markets with big populations. On the flipside, it also has one of the largest unbanked populations. Our mission is to service the unbanked by servicing financial institutions at the forefront of that challenge. So, that’s one of the reasons we chose the Philippines,” Oradian CEO and Founder Antonio Separovic told the BusinessMirror on the sidelines of a forum hosted by the company in Makati City and participated in by the country’s rural banks.
With only a single rural bank using cloud infrastructure, Separovic said the mission of Oradian is to “serve the unbanked” and the Philippines is a perfect place for the project. He added Oradian is the first rural-banking software to be preapproved by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for the country’s rural banks.
So far, Surigao del Sur-based Cantilan Bank Inc. (CBI), then known as the Rural Bank of Cantilan Inc., is the only rural bank in the Philippines that has deployed cloud computing in its operations. CBI has an authorized capitalization of P300 million, and a paid-up capital of P 214 million. Its ownership has grown to 271 stockholders.
Established in 1980, CBI has grown to 43 branches and offices operating in the Caraga region, Misamis Oriental, Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Leyte, Southern Leyte and Bukidnon, with total resources of P2.4 billion as of December 2016. CBI is now one of the biggest rural banks in the country.
By using the Cloud, Separovic said it allows people to use the Internet to tap into hardware, software and other services, anytime and anywhere, from powerful computers usually found in remote sites. The combination of big data and computing power under the cloud will allow rural banks to develop systems capable of providing better advice to clients. Based on their research, Separovic added customers using Oradian can save as much 30 percent to 50 percent of their current operational cost.
“It is obviously a dramatic decline in cost plus reduction in the cost of paper,” he said.
Moreover, the Croatian techie said the cloud also enables rural banks to respond quickly to the changing market and the evolving needs of customers and technology. Cloud computing, Separovic said, allows for improved efficiency ratio and operating leverage since it makes it easier to integrate new technologies and applications in the future.
“The cloud also provides clients faster banking transactions as buyers and sellers can share applications using the cloud,” Separovic added.