BDO reaches out to far-flung areas

MANILA, Philippines — BDO Unibank Inc. is expanding its service in far-flung areas and unbanked communities to help more Filipinos and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) severely affected by the impact of the global health pandemic.

Jaime Nasol, head of agency banking at BDO, said in a virtual press briefing the country’s largest lender is aggressively reaching more areas to provide “Cash Agad” service amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the pandemic we saw a dramatic increase in volume of transactions since Cash Agad is present in the local communities. This was expected since the lockdowns prevented people from travelling to the usual towns where they normally withdraw,” Nasol said.

Nasol said volume and value of transactions jumped 120 percent and continued to grow.

“We are still aggressively increasing the number of partners to reach more Filipinos nationwide, specially in areas where basic banking services are badly needed,” he said.

There are still many places in the country that do not have banks or ATMs where Filipinos and entrepreneurs may conveniently get cash.

The Cash Agad service provides a simple, elegant, and practical solution to all that. By partnering with stores and shops already established in the community, BDO turns them into community-based ATM terminals.

The shop owner receives a point-of-sales (POS) terminal for use in transacting locally-issued ATM cards, whether debit or prepaid and facilitates basic transactions like cash withdrawals and balance inquiries.

The service also benefits entire communities as Cash Agad accepts transactions using ATM cards from different local banks and non-bank financial institutions in the Philippines, not only those from BDO.

Both entrepreneurs and workers in MSMEs are the hardest-hit by the economic disruption resulting from the pandemic.

Data from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) showed about 525,000 out of the one million MSMEs in the country have closed their businesses, leaving millions of Filipinos unemployed.

“If the country’s economy is ever going to bounce back from the pandemic, it will take all of us – big businesses, MSMEs, and both urban and rural communities and their local governments – to help each other and do our part. There’s a certain inspiration, a beautiful sort of hope when you see communities working together to rise up and recover from a crisis. BDO is doing its part in helping communities recover economically through the Cash Agad network,” Nasol said.