MANILA, Philippines — Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) continues to accelerate digital inclusion across communities through the DiskarTech app, which has adopted the interoperable national QR (quick response) code standard.
Lito Villanueva, executive vice president and chief innovation and inclusion officer at RCBC, said the move supports the government’s massive digitalization efforts especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic through the initiatives of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
“We continue to deliver on our commitment toward accelerating digital inclusion across communities across the country through grassroots banking. This supports key sustainable development goals creating social impact and meaningful progress amidst the pandemic,” Villanueva said.
QRph ensures fast, error-free, and secured financial transactions. Any data transferred through it is encrypted, making the transaction safe and reliable. This lessens face-to-face encounters and promotes digital or cash-lite financial transactions.
Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez earlier said the government could not capacitate the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on its own as there are 1.5 million registered businesses in the Philippines.
This is why the government partners with the private sector for initiatives like DiskarTech to push MSMEs to embrace digitalization.
It initially covers person-to-person (P2P) digital payments that could be used by microentrepreneurs such as sari-sari stores and market vendors.
This enables merchants and even vendors accept payments digitally by displaying a standard QRph code to be scanned by customers.
DiskarTech has deployed its NegosyanTech kits to various sari-sari stores enabling and empowering community-based micro-businesses to accept digital payments through QRph.
“By helping more than 1.3 million sari-sari stores and market vendors in over 42,000 barangays, Diskartech’s complete suite of digital financial services will benefit our MSMEs,” Lopez said.
DiskarTech continues to become the preferred financial app as it reaches more than 3 million downloads from both Google Play and Apple stores this October.