BPI launches mobile app for fund mgm’t services

MANILA, Philippines - Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), a leader in electronic banking innovations, introduced yesterday the newest version of its Express Mobile App, this time featuring a banker who can actually provide free investment advice online.

BPI senior vice president and head of wealth management Mario Miranda said since the launch of the new version of the Express Mobile App recently, they have already captured at least 6,000 clients.

He said they expect to more than double this number to around 15,000-16,000 this year.

Before the launch of the updated app which carries a subscription and redemption feature for investment funds, Miranda admitted that investment transactions were still difficult for clients.

“With these new features, we made it really easier for clients since they have to just download the app and do their transactions outright using their mobile and smartphones,” he said.

“This new feature evolved from the investments online feature in BPI Express Online which was launched last year. With the investment funds in mobile, clients would now have the ability to view details of existing investments, as well as subscribe to and/or redeem existing funds using their mobile devices through the BPI Express Mobile App,” he added.

He said they also expect the number of clients usoing the app to conduct their investment-related transactions to increase over time as they would also be introducing new investment products in the near term.

“We used to get 100,000 online transactions every year. We hope we could capture all these using this new investment fund app,” he said.

The new BPI Express Mobile App is an enhancement of BPI’s existing iOS and Android mobile banking app launched in late 2011. This new version will give clients a new and improved user interface along with additional new features and services.

With this newly released version, users will still be able to do the regular banking transactions found in the existing mobile banking app, as well as experience new additional features on an easy-to-use, native interface providing smoother and faster navigation.

Basic features available include account inquiry, prepaid phone card reloading, among others.

The new features added include pre-login options which would allow clients to access an ATM and branch locator; inquire about the latest foreign exchange rates of the bank; browse through a promise database; and easily jump to other BPI digital properties such as Express Online, BPI’s Facebook, Twitter pages and more.

BPI vice president and head of channel management and channel services divisions Armando Navarrete Jr., for his part, said the bank-to-bank transaction will eventually be part of this app soon.

Navarrete said they are also working on the so-called near-field communication (NFC) which if launched soon will make themthe first bank to introduce this technology in the industry.

The bank official said they have conducted a pilot test for NFC last year and now is finalizing some details.

NFC is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few centimeters.

NFC paves the way for contactless transactions, data exchange, and simplified setup of more complex communications such as Wi-Fi.Communication is also possible between an NFC device and an unpowered NFC chip, called a “tag.”