RCBC's ATM Go Qorus Banking Innovation Awards 2021

RCBC’s ATM Go is the Philippines’ first neighborhood automated teller machine (ATM) that allows cardholders of financial institutions supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s central bank, to do transactions through various payout partners nationwide. These transactions include cash withdrawal, deposit, balance inquiry, and fund transfers through ATM Go’s mobile point-of-sale terminals (mPOS). Powered by Weepay and Novus Technologies, RCBC’s ATM Go is especially designed for agent-based, grassroots sachet banking. RCBC partnered with several rural banks, sari-sari stores, drugstores, cooperatives, and microfinance institutions throughout the country, and deployed these mPOS devices in order to open more financial access points to more Filipinos, especially those who are living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAS). This groundbreaking RCBC fintech innovation also supports the BSP’s vision of widening the financial inclusion base in the country. With its unique cardless withdrawal feature, ATM Go has become a reliable partner of ordinary Filipinos and mSMEs with over 1,500 terminals deployed in 74 of 81 provinces in the country. By end of 2021, 100 percent of provinces will be covered. ATM Go has also been instrumental in providing financial aid to the beneficiaries of the government’s social protection program through the Ayuda Arangkada program. This undertaking spearheaded by RCBC at the height of the pandemic in 2020 is the first massive private sector initiative that helped accelerate the disbursement of government aid to its designated recipients. A total of US$245 million (P 12.43 billion) has been disbursed via ATM Go, benefitting 5.02 million households or a total of 25.09 million individuals in 74 out of 81 provinces in the country. Due to its unique and efficient way of servicing Filipinos in hard-to-reach areas, ATM Go was recently awarded The Asian Banker Financial Technology Award for Best ATM and Kiosk Implementation last August 2021. Future Developments For the remainder of 2021, RCBC’s Digital Enterprise and Innovations Group will unlock the following new ATM Go features for a better customer experience: • Cardless withdrawal will be brought to the next level by introducing Person-to-merchant and Person-to-Micro cardless withdrawals using QRph codes. • Onboarding of Operator Payment System (OPS) via Novus Technologies to enable additional features and services such as bills payment; purchase of eLoad, e-tickets and e-pins, e-wallet top ups, and “send money services” to payout partners and other banks Digital Prowess meets Empathy With all these, RCBC with its ATM Go recognizes the importance of fintech in enriching our customer experience and promoting seamless, frictionless banking for all, 24/7. As more and more customers migrate to digital, which is precisely the bank’s and the country’s goal, ATM Go believes in the need for technology to facilitate and accommodate such an increase in demand. Because of this, we believe technology can help promote synergy among banks, regulators, and financial industry partners. More automation is necessary to lessen or manage human contact, which is a banking setup the industry must be able to implement moving forward, if we are to make our business pandemic-proof. In the end, innovations are only as good as the impact they make to society. And for ATM Go, digital prowess must always be coupled with empathy to be truly effective and sustainable.