RCBC eyes unbanked sector

Posted on March 20, 2011 09:25:17 PM

RCBC eyes unbanked sector

RIZAL Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), the country’s fifth largest bank, seeks to cover more of the country’s “unbanked” sector by forging more partnerships with merchants for its MyWallet prepaid card.

“[Creating partnerships] with big merchants was part of our plans in 2007. When we introduced the MyWallet card that year, we targeted to tie up with merchants to build up our customer base for the MyWallet card product and to tap the country’s unbanked segment,” said Ismael R. Sandig, RCBC executive vice president and retail banking group head, in a phone interview with BusinessWorld.

He said RCBC has issued 1.3 million MyWallet cards since these were launched and targets 3 million cards by the end of this year.

The RCBC MyWallet card is a prepaid card that allows the cardholder to withdraw cash from ATMs, pay for purchases and pay for bills.

Unlike a debit card, which is a payment card linked to the cardholder’s bank account, a prepaid card is not linked to a bank account. A prepaid card, therefore,does not require the cardholder to open an account in the issuing bank but has to be reloaded so the cardholder can continue to make purchases.

A prepaid card should work well with the unbanked -- those without access to formal financial services -- who may hesitate to enter a bank or use its services.

Three out of four Filipinos belong to the ranks of the unbanked.

The MyWallet card does not require any maintaining balance, and may be loaded up to P100,000 per month. RCBC does not impose any penalties if a cardholder uses up all of his or her stored cash.

“The only way to service the nonbank segment is to have a prepaid card that is affordable for them and requires no maintaining balance,” Mr. Sandig said.

To be able to reach the unbanked segment, Mr. Sandig said RCBC plans to close partnerships with three big merchants this year after forging agreements with courier company LBC and Mercury Drug.

“We have tied-up with LBC and Mercury Drug. We target to seal three more deals with three big merchants this year,” he said but declined to disclose their names

“Our partnership with LBC is currently in phase two. We are interfacing our system with them because we want to convert LBC branches into reloading stations. We have gained the central bank’s approval to make them reloading stations of the MyWallet card,” he added.

There are more than 800 LBC branches nationwide.

The RCBC Mercury Drug-MyWallet card contains all the features of an RCBC MyWallet card, but with its co-branding with Mercury Drug, cardholders will be able to earn points when they make purchases at Mercury Drug stores.

Three other MyWallet card variants are: RCBC MyWallet MRT, RCBC MyWallet Visa, and RCBC My Wallet.

The RCBC MyWallet MRT also serves as an MRT e-ticket.

Holders of the RCBC MyWallet Visa gain access to the Visa network worldwide. They can use it anywhere Visa cards are accepted.

The RCBC MyWallet card is the generic card that allows the cardholder to withdraw cash from ATMs, inquire load balance, pay bills, transfer funds from one MyWallet card to another and make purchases via Bancnet point-of-sale (POS) systems.

RCBC reported P4.25 billion in net income last year, up by 28% from 2009. It had a total of 356 branches as of end-2010.

RCBC shares closed unchanged at P26.80 apiece last Friday.

--
---------------------------------------------
CARLOS ANI - SEEDFINANCE Corporation - http://www.seedfinance.net
Email: carlosani@seedfinance.net
Landline: +63495010127 Cellphone: +639152919580
DEVJOBS - http://www.devjobsmail.com
PHILDEVFINANCE - http://phildevfinance.posterous.com http://phildevfinance.wordpress.com
CONSULTING - http://www.carlosani.com
My Clippings - http://www.myclipps.posterous.com
------------------------------------------