RCBC books exponential growth in digital transactions

MANILA, Philippines — Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) continues to experience an exponential surge in digital transactions in the first quarter as it ramps up push for wider financial inclusion and digital acceleration in the country.

RCBC president and CEO Eugene Acevedo said the  bank strongly supports the twin goals of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) under its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap.

Under the roadmap, the central bank aims to convert 50 percent of total retail transactions to digital channels and increase the number of Filipinos with bank accounts to 70 percent by 2023.

“The sustained exponential growth of RCBC’s DiskarTech this quarter is only indicative that Filipinos are now getting more comfortable with digital financial transactions,” Acevedo added.

RCBC booked a 205-percent increase in revenues for its three digital platforms from January to March this year, making it the leading financial institution in terms of gross transaction value for the digital banking segment.

With 69 percent of its user base located across all 81 provinces in the country, RCBC’s first Taglish and Cebuano financial inclusion super app DiskarTech registered over P4.18 billion in gross transaction value as of end-March this year, an 862 percent surge compared to 2021 values.

This was generally driven by high-volume transactions across different services offered in the app, which also noted a 265 percent jump from last year.

Among key transactions done through DiskarTech, partner deposits remain to be the largest contributor to the app’s overall growth, registering a 1,137 percent and 308 percent in both transaction value and volume, respectively.

DiskarTech’s deposit size more than doubled to P106 million.

Cash-in and cash-out transactions are being done in over 45,000 touch-points nationwide that includes 7-Eleven, Bayad Center, DigiPay, Panalo Express, Sendah Direct, rural banks, pawnshops, drugstores, and money service business, among others.

DiskarTech partner deposits are also projected to surge in the next quarters of the year as the app further expands its cash-in points across the country through its partnership with Smart Padala.

Primary mobile banking app RCBC Digital registered a 31 percent increase in total throughput volume for its mobile and web channels resulting in a 51 percent jump in value to P34 billion.

RCBC Digital also launched early this year its simplified new-to-bank registration feature allowing prospective clients to open an RCBC account and transact using the mobile app without having to go to a physical branch.

Meanwhile, RCBC’s neighborhood mobile point-of-sale terminal (mPOS) ATM Go also recorded a 22 percent increase in transaction volume with a total throughput value of over P1.8 billion.

As of end-March, a total of 1,239 ATM Go terminals had been deployed to partner merchants in 76 out of 81 provinces of the country including the recent onboarding of new partners from Basilan and Abra.