The Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) is eyeing a total of 100 banking centers by 2012 to ensure banking convenience for its existing and future banking clients nationwide. Each banking center will be manned by a customer relations officer (CRO).
Banking centers will be RCBC’s electronic channel, which includes automated teller machines (ATMs), phone banking, Internet banking and the like. It will also augment the 326 branches located nationwide.
“We will likely set aside a capital expenditure budget of P5 million for the centers,” Ismael R. Sandig, RCBC executive vice president and retail banking group head, said.
Already in its pilot testing stage are two banking centers located in Cebu City and Paco in Manila.
The development of business centers is part of the bank’s program of reaching out to the banking public, not being limited by the number of branches it already operates, and the prohibitive cost of putting up more branches.
RCBC wants to reach out to all levels of the banking public, from the cash-reach corporate accounts to individuals classified with the Class C and D market.
Sandig said that the commercial bank of the Yuchengco Group of Companies is also undertaking facelifting in its branch network as well as rationalizing others.
It recently acquired the Merchant Savings and Loan Association, and is in the process of integrating and rationalizing the 21 branches from the acquisition. Four of these will remain in its present location which 17 will be relocated. Of those relocated, seven are situated with the so-called restricted area or areas within Metro Manila.
The entire integration process including the branch rationalization will be completed by next year.
Meanwhile, RCBC introduced recently its cash card or pre-loaded card.
The card called My Wallet, can be loaded up to P100,000. “The card itself is free, and there is no membership fee either,” Sandig pointed out.
Charges are initiated when the cardholder reloads cash. Senior citizens are charged P5 regardless of loading amount, students are charged P10, and regular holders P20. After a year of usage, the cardholder will be awarded rebates on purchases or payments.
Even as it is being introduced, RBCB is already into talks with merchants for other services and use of My Wallet, including co-branching with other sectoral entities.
Bank officials confided that they are already in talks with schools for payments of tuition fees and the like. It is also finalizing processes with utility companies and telecommunication companies.
In the exploratory stage are discussions with government agencies, including government controlled companies and corporations (GOCCs).
Earlier, RCBC president Lorenzo Tan admitted that the bank was still in the acquisition mode. It is in various levels of discussions with a thrift and development bank, and a medium-sized commercial bank.
Tan further admitted that RCBC hopes to end talks with the thrift and savings bank within three months.
“We are still open to acquisitions, and our preference is smaller banks (in the case of commercial banks) and relatively larger ones (in the case of thrift banks),” the RCBC president said, adding that the bank’s focus this year is the consumer and SME market, as well as the middle corporate.
Thus RCBC has been aggressive in branch expansion, ATM deployment, and the introduction of new or improved convenience and consumer banking products. They still have a lending portfolio for middle corporates of about P10 billion.
That would also result in higher fee-based income as the treasury business has been taking a tailspin with a lackluster equities market and high interest rates.
“We want to grow out retail banking income by another 40 percent with our loan portfolio growing by 20 percent coming mainly from consumer lending,” Tan said.
Customer base is targeted to reach over a million this year, and balloon to five million by 2011.