Smart, BDO expand electronic banking partnership

MANILA, Philippines - Leading wireless services provider Smart Communications has expanded its tie up with Banco de Oro Unibank (BDO) on their mobile and electronic banking partnership.

The enhanced team up will now enable mobile subscribers to purchase electronic load for Smart Buddy and Talk ‘N Text accounts anytime, anywhere through BDO ATMs, phone banking and Internet banking systems.

Smart officials explained that this complements the earlier engagements with BDO, foremost of which is mobile banking, which allows Smart subscribers to perform BDO account inquiries, fund transfers, airtime purchases and Smart Money reloading, with just a few clicks on the SIM-based mobile commerce menu of Smart.

BDO is also Smart’s first issuer bank for Smart Money — the world’s first reloadable payment card linked to a mobile phone with a Smart SIM.

“As the country’s leading telco, our job is to provide the communications infrastructure that will enable the banking industry to offer new, innovative services to their customers. The enhancements of our partnership with BDO, will enable us to provide an expanded and more robust electronic banking experience to the increasingly mobile Filipino,” Smart financial services group head Jojo Malolos added.

For his part, BDO senior vice president and group head for transaction banking Ismael Estela said BDO’s extensive network, combined with Smart’s advanced mobile commerce technology, will help the bank provide their customers with faster, more convenient and more secure ways of managing their banking requirements.

Smart has been actively promoting mobile commerce services in the Philippines since 2000. The company has likewise developed a global financial and telecommunications services hub model called the Smart Financial Services Hub (SFSH), based on the features and capabilities of its Smart Money electronic financial services platform.

BDO is the largest local bank in terms of assets, loans and deposits and ranked third in terms of capital, as of the end of the first quarter of 2009. Notwithstanding the prevailing tough economic environment, the bank keeps an optimistic outlook for the rest of the year, targeting a full-year profit of P5.5 billion.