Chinatrust to offer debit cards for SSS pensioners

Taiwan-based Chinatrust Commercial (Philippines) Inc. will offer starting next month debit cards to pensioners of the Social Security System (SSS), a top bank official said.

There are an average 20,000 retiring SSS members every month.

"It will be offered as an option, aside from the regular system of placing the monthly retirement benefits to the savings or current accounts of its pensioners,"Anthony T. Robles, Chinatrust executive vice president for retail banking said.

Robles explained that the debit card is ideal for retirees who do not have to go to their banks or visit an ATM. Instead, the retirees can immediately transact business such as purchasing goods or service using just the card.

He added Chinatrust will also be launching an SMS program that will allow cardholders to receive or access their statement of accounts through their mobile phones.

Visa-branded debit cards issued by Chinatrust have reached over 200,000 as of end-November, or 150 percent higher from the 80,000 level in the same period last year.

Chinatrust debit cards have been averaging over P2 million a week through point-or-sale (POS) transactions, up from the P600,000 weekly transactions last year. POS are transactions like buying appliances or paying for meals or plane tickets.

More than a third of the debit cards issued were utilized for remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and migrant Filipinos to their relatives and other beneficiaries. Chinatrust has working alliances with 15 international money transfer or remittance companies.

The fastest growing market in the debit card business is the payroll business. "We already have several call center accounts that may soon double our card base," Robles said.

Instead of paying cash or issuing ATMs to employees, companies could issue debit cards. They can also enroll in a program that will allow employers to upload monthly wages of its employees without the direct intervention of the bank.

Chinatrust is the second largest issuer of Visa debit cards in the Philippines. Union Bank of the Philippines is the leading issuer owing to its co-branding operations with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

"The challenge is how to accelerate the acceptance of the market, first from cash to plastics, then from ATMs to debit cards. The other challenge is widening of the infrastructure for debit cards," Robles added.

Total card sales volume in the Philippines, using Visa International cards, broke the P100-billion ceiling in the first six months of 2006, amounting to P103.9 billion.

The figure includes credit cards, debit cards and automated teller machine (ATM) cards.