RCBC ATM Go Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards 2024

“Innovations with Empathy” has been the collective mantra of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) to champion massive digital transformation and financial inclusion efforts of the government as articulated in its purpose, promise, and plan while cultivating a culture of customer service excellence.

Based on a contextual banking strategy that aims to understand the Philippine landscape, RCBC has effectively implemented pioneering, high-impact, human-centric, and demand-driven digital financial innovations through RCBC ATM Go. Its efforts have successfully scaled RCBC ATM Go in remote and rural communities and engaged with underserved and unbanked Filipinos with empowering financial literacy modules. In addition, these high-impact efforts have catapulted RCBC ATM Go to become the most extensive ATM service, covering 100% of the Philippines across all 82 provinces. More than 65% of its financial transactions are social grants and cash withdrawals by CCT/4Ps household beneficiaries of the national government in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.

RCBC ATM Go is part of the first phygital (physical-digital) banking solution in the country - RCBC Moneybela Barangayan Banking, which has driven rural bank onboarding rates to a record-breaking 210% in 13,116 barangays. 65% of these transactions are traced to the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, the government’s conditional cash transfer program.

To translate its vision of digitizing the Philippines and making digital and financial solutions accessible into action, RCBC focused on the following:

It strategically positions RCBC as a staunch ally of the national government in supporting its National Strategy for Financial Inclusion and Digital Payments Transformation Plan. Actively deliver genuine human-centric service by bringing financial services much closer to unbanked and underserved communities through barangay (village) banking. Continuously enhancing innovations to meet the market’s needs Consistently upholding excellent customer service

In 2019, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) or BSP, reported that only 29% of Filipino adults are banked. Millions of unbanked and underserved Filipinos signaled countless lost opportunities for personal and collective economic growth. The BSP consequently crafted the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, a national blueprint to rally the banking sector to accelerate inclusive digital finance. The BSP’s objective was simple: to bank 70% of adult Filipinos and convert 50% of retail payments into digital by the end of 2023.

RCBC immediately responded to this call by offering existing and new digital solutions that will help the national government achieve its goals. Despite the tremendous challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought worldwide to individuals and businesses, RCBC stepped up, took the risk, and embraced the role of being a staunch ally of the national government since then. By offering RCBC Pulz (formerly RCBC Digital), RCBC DiskarTech, and RCBC ATM Go to Filipinos, RCBC was able to contribute to the increase in the number of banked Filipinos from 29% in 2019 to 56% in 2021 (as per BSP data). By the end of 2023, it was estimated that the target of onboarding 70% of Filipinos and digitizing 50% of retail payments was accomplished through a multitude of approaches and campaigns including RCBC’s highly inclusive, out-of-the-box, and grassroots-oriented strategies and offerings.