Two prestigious award-giving bodies in the financial services industry have recently recognized the Bank of the Philippine Islands as a leader in mobile banking services.
BPI received the Best Mobile Banking in the Philippines award from The Asian Banker, as part of its annual Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards program held last October 2, 2015, at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel. The award honors the bank with a mobile banking platform that demonstrates the use of the full range of current mobile device technology for financial transactions and services in the most intuitive and secure manner possible.
BPI also received the Best Electronic Delivery Channel award from the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines (BMAP) . The award recognizes the bank that successfully implemented the most innovative electronic delivery systems and achieved the desired results in terms of usage and acceptance.
According to Carlo Carmelo S. Gatuslao, vice-president and division head of BPI electronic channels, BPI has consistently taken the lead in introducing technological innovations in the banking sector, beginning with the automated teller machines in the 1980s, phone banking in the 1990s, online banking in the internet age and, now, mobile banking with the increasing ubiquity of smartphones.
From a user base of around 600,000 in 2014, the BPI mobile banking team has already exceeded its 2015 target of 800,000 users with about 1-million downloads from the Google Play Store and another 600,000 downloads on iOS devices. By their estimates, they now have close to 1-million actual users across platforms, performing a variety of transactions ranging from branch/atm locator services to bills payment and funds transfers. Activity on the BPI mobile app averages about 1.6-million transactions each month, accounting for some PHP 12.6-billion in peso-values.
BPI financial products and services group head Simon R. Paterno notes that BPI’s leadership in mobile banking can be attributed to its commitment in developing features suited to its clients while leveraging the popularity of smartphones and mobile data in the country. “With the BPI Express Mobile app, our clients can easily access their accounts and make financial transactions, even with the most affordable smartphones,” he says.
The Asian Banker is a leading international provider of strategic intelligence on the financial services industry. Its International Excellence in Retail Financial Services program is the most rigorous, prestigious and transparent awards program for consumer banking in the region.
BMAP is an organization of banking institutions that seeks to promote and upgrade the practice of bank marketing in the country. Its members include well-established organizations from banking, telecommunications, and insurance.
In photo above are (L-R): Vincent Christopher L. Hipol, brand manager for mobile banking; Aristotle G. Guardacasa, channel officer for mobile banking; Frederick M. Faustino, AVP for mobile banking; and Carlo Carmelo S. Gatuslao, VP and head of BPI Electronic Channels.