BanKO unveils first-ever LGU mobile banking
By Ted P. Torres (The Philippine Star) | Updated August 20, 2013 - 12:00am
And with the help of a technical assistant (TA) grant worth $1.99
million from the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), the project will simplify payroll distribution for the 300
employees of the local government of Pulilan, Bulacan.
And the cost of paying the water bills for the 10,000 Pulilan households
will fall dramatically, since the residents can use their mobile phones
instead of having to travel to the payment centers.
BanKO is the country's only thrift bank driven by mobile banking
technology. It is a joint undertaking between the Bank of the Philippine
Islands (BPI), Globe Telecommunications (Globe) and Ayala Corp.
BanKO president Teresita B. Tan said that the platform also allows
Pulilan government employees to open a savings account with an interest
rate of three percent, or a one-percent interest rate with free life
insurance.
"It is financial empowerment through mobile technology that will result
in savings for the LGU and the thousands of households using the local
water district," Tan said during the formal launching and activation of
the mobile banking platform in Bulacan last Thursday.
The platform eliminates handling cost of transporting cash from Baliwag
to Pulilan, and it reduces the risk of theft or robbery while payroll is
in-transit in case of field-based employees.
It will result in no average daily balances, no need for vault,
enclosure or security personnel to secure cash, simplified requirements
for opening accounts, and increased access points through ATMs and
neighborhood partner outlets.
For the residents of Pulilan, they do not have to physically go to the
payment centers.
Pulilan Mayor Vicente Esguerra said that some of their residents spend
more than P100 on transportation just to pay their monthly bills. "That
will be eliminated with the mobile payment platform," Esguerra added.
Meanwhile, USAID Philippines Deputy Mission director Reed Aeschliman
said that the agency readily issued a grant worth $1.99 million to get
the project started.
"Pulilan is the first (LGU) in the country to use mobile (banking
technology) for salary and bills payment," Aeschliman said. "In India,
some $18 billion was saved by plugging leakages in salary payments using
mobile payments."
The grant was extended to the Pulilan project as an area, which had a
critical mass in terms of local population, and the presence of large
and small-scale businesses.
Pulilan plays host to 85 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and
large enterprises, employing over 6,700. There are more than 20
cooperatives also operating in the area.
Of the total number of businesses, 27 are major manufacturing
businesses, which includes Purina Philippines Inc., Nestle Philippines
Inc, Rebtrade Intl. Corp., Feedmix Specialists, Foster Foods Inc.,
Fisherfarms Inc., Tyson Agro-Ventures, Jockers Food Industry and TJN
Pasalubong Victory Industrial Corp.
Meanwhile, Pulilan government employees and residents can get started
with just P100 initial opening account, of which P50 is the initial cash
in and the balance P50 is for the automated teller machine (ATM) card.
Bank official said that with the mobile money account, the facility
provides several financial services from savings, sending and receiving
money domestically, buying airtime load with rebates, buying
micro-insurance, paying bills from utilities, regular insurance, school
tuition and fees, and some government fees, and cashing in and out
through partner outlets within the community.
BanKO is also working on giving its accountholders access to credit, and
purchase goods using their ATM cards.
Tan said that BanKO would soon be introducing international remittance
services for families with overseas relatives, and domestic money
transfer banking services for all of its existing 380,000 clients.
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