FintechNews.Sg | RCBC Embarks on Digital KYC with LenddoEFL to Onboard Millions of Unbanked Filipinos

Originally posted on fintechnews.sg

PHILIPPINES (Fintechnews) October 22, 2019 – Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) has sealed a partnership with LenddoEFL for faster and more convenient financial account opening for Filipinos through an end-to-end digital verification and authentication solution.  To date, Know Your Customer (KYC) processes have always required a face-to-face or real-time online interview to onboard bank customers.

“With digital KYC, consumers, particularly those who are unbanked, can open deposit accounts, apply for loans online, take out new insurance policies, do money transfers, and pay more than 2,000 billers through RCBC’s DiskarTech virtual bank in less than five minutes, anytime, anywhere. This is simply commoditizing customer convenience in an era when consumers prefer to interact through online channels,” said executive vice president and chief innovation and inclusion officer Lito Villanueva.

Government regulator Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been at the forefront in championing inclusive digital finance and digitalization through emerging regulations leveraging on technology. “Overcoming the barriers to digital connectivity will not only promote accessibility to digital financial products, but will allow innovators to improve the design, enhance security features, and drive down the cost of financial services,” in a speech delivered by BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno at the recent 2019 Financial Executives (FINEX) conference.

“This is a game-changer as we continue to adopt alternative digital verification to help push for a more secure, faster and reliable verification process to onboard more unbanked and underserved segments into the financial system, supporting BSP's mission of financial inclusion,” said Judith Dumapay, APAC Sales Director Philippines, LenddoEFL.

Based on the 2017 Financial Inclusion Survey, only 23% of Filipino adults have a formal account. Only 48% of adults save, but 7 in 10 savers keep their savings at home. Of the 22% of Filipino adults who avail loans, 4 in 10 do so through informal sources.

South China Morning Post | Technology guides RCBC Bankard’s strategy for new clients

Originally posted on South China Morning.

Country Business Reports interviews and articles by Discovery Reports www.discoveryreports.com

More than an alternative payment method for cash, credit cards today function more as a multi-purpose card as many institutions incorporate incentives such as airline miles, dining credits, discounts and more. Understanding how credit cards need to be more relevant and more integrated to the lifestyles of users, RCBC Bankard is dedicated to developing cards that address their requirements.

Specialising in lending and payments facilitation, RCBC Bankard, the credit card arm of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC), is among the fastest-growing credit card brands in the Philippines. It steadily built its technological knowledge and capabilities to rapidly bring to market a curated portfolio of products and services.

The Philippine market is generally underserved. We want to issue five million credit cards in the Philippines in 10 years

Simon Calasanz, president and CEO

Available under major card association brands Visa, Mastercard, JCB and UnionPay, RCBC Bankard offers 11 co-brand credit cards, including tie-ups with AirAsia, MANGO and Phoenix Petroleum, among others.

“We regularly assess the transaction behaviour of customers to customise our offers for them. We tailor everything according to analytics,” says president and CEO Simon Calasanz.

As more consumers increasingly lead digital lifestyles, RCBC Bankard will be launching a mobile app by the end of this year. It also plans to increase customer touch points through text messaging and online messaging support.

To further advance its technological expertise, RCBC Bankard is actively partnering with financial technology firms to enhance and optimise its operations. In the past few years, RCBC Bankard has been working with Singapore-based fintech LenddoEFL, a market leader in alternative credit scoring and Filipino identity verification solutions, to speed up its digital transformation. RCBC Bankard and LenddoEFL effectively allow new-to-bank applicants to use their digital footprints to unlock access to financial services with the use of cloud-based solutions fully aligned with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas requirements.

RCBC Bankard is bullish about becoming among the top credit card companies. “The Philippine market is generally underserved. We want to issue five million credit cards in the Philippines in 10 years,” Calasanz says.

www.rcbcbankard.com

Press Release | LenddoEFL Launches eKYC Solution to Speed Up Verification in the Philippines

Aligned with Philippine banking regulation, technology-aided verification from LenddoEFL can help more people get faster, more convenient access to financial services.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (PRWEB) AUGUST 28, 2018

LenddoEFL, whose verification, credit scoring, and consumer insights helps leading banks make data-driven decisions, launched an electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) product for customers applying for credit card and bank accounts at Philippine financial institutions consistent with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) regulation.

To date, Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations in the Philippines have always required a face-to-face or real-time online interview to onboard new-to-card or new-to-bank current account/savings account (CASA) customers.

Now, customers will be able to get verified as part of a CASA or credit card account application faster and more conveniently by opting-in to avail of the eKYC solution from their mobile phone. LenddoEFL’s eKYC solution offers a simpler way for banks to onboard new customers. See BSP Circular 950, Subsection X806.2 item D for details on using information and communication technology (ICT) in the conduct of face to face contact.

“This is a game-changer as we continue to adopt alternative digital verification and scoring to help push for a more secure, faster and reliable verification process to onboard more unbanked and underserved segments into the financial system, supporting BSP's mission of financial inclusion,” said Judith Dumapay, APAC Sales Director Philippines, LenddoEFL.

Each bank considering to use technology-aided verification must do so within their risk-based customer acceptance policies and anchored on the results of their risk assessment process. They also remain responsible for watchlist screening.

Read in PRWeb.com

Blog | Digital Identities: Learnings from GSMA’s User Research in Sri Lanka

Smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka interviewed as part of the digital identity research

Recently, our friends at GSMA’s Digital Identity Programme and Copasetic Research set off to research digital identities and how they could support smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka. Their key hypothesis was:

“If MNOs, financial institutions, government and other service providers had access to a smallholder farmer’s ‘economic identity’ (income, transactional histories, credit worthiness, rights to/ownership of land, geolocation, farm size, and other vital credentials), they could provide access to more and better tailored services that enhance their productivity.”

In speaking with 40 smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka, as well as 7 stakeholders and 5 agri experts, GSMA learned a lot about the need for digital identities. GSMA invited LenddoEFL’s input in advance of the field research so we were keen to review the learnings. Below are some of the key findings of the report and how it relates to our work at LenddoEFL.  If this is interesting, we recommend reviewing the full report.

Source: Digital Identity for Smallholder Farmers: Insights from Sri Lanka

Identity is valued, but farmers are unclear how it relates to additional benefits
In Sri Lanka, the government is rolling out a new smart ID card giving increasing access to official identity. But farmers do not immediately understand how new forms of identity can be used to help them get access to more services (e.g. more tailored information services). Once they make the connection, they see the value clearly.

Identity is valued as it relates to accessing credit
Farmers and banks do not connect directly in many cases and farmers tend to have informal manners of connecting to credit through their buyers and agribusinesses. Banks don’t always have the information they need to cater to farmers. And the microcredit model can be more of a burden on the farmers than it’s worth. The research found that smallholder farmers are happy for their trusted service providers to work together and share information to enable access to credit. But since many farmers receive their income informally, the thought of sharing this information too widely (particularly with the government) caused some concerns.

Source: Digital Identity for Smallholder Farmers: Insights from Sri Lanka

Digital ID must build on face to face relationships
In Sri Lanka, farmers rely on and trust institutions with whom they have built local, personal, face to face relationships and these will be the best channels to roll out new systems and technology.

Farming is changing
Climate change and globalization mean that the work of a farmer is changing. Traditional farming skills are no longer enough. Farmers need to be constantly re-considering which crops they will grow now and in the future due to changing weather conditions and fluctuations in profitability. Younger farmers in particular are looking outside of their communities to the internet for new information. This new information needs to be combined with better access to financial services, allowing farmers to finance the transition to new crops, and hedge some of the risks in experimenting with new approaches.

ID needs vary across farmer types
The research found that a farmer’s financial stability and the extent to which they are embracing change (i.e. changes to farming practices, or the use of new technologies) have the most significant influence on their digital identity needs and priorities. GSMA mapped farmers across a 2 by 2 with the axes of poorer → wealthier and embracing change → stuck/fearful of change. In each quadrant is a unique farmer with unique needs. See report for more.

All of this means there is opportunity to better serve farmers (and other small business owners).

Farmers need better access to formal financial services:
Digital financial profiles could allow farmers to access savings, credit or insurance more conveniently and cheaply. Note that farmers were concerned about sharing their income information with a lender for fear it would get to the government and increase taxation or reduce welfare support. Credit scoring using psychometric data could be a good fit for farmers as it relies on personality profile data created at the time of assessment rather than existing financial data.

Read the full report

Contact us for more info on LenddoEFL’s credit assessment