BPI surpasses mobile banking targets

MANILA, Philippines - The Bank of the Philippines Islands (BPI) has surpassed its mobile banking subscriber base target for 2015 as early as the end of the third quarter.

From the 2014 subscriber base of 600,000, it has now over 900,000 active users, well over the original target of 850,000.

BPI vice president and division head of Electronic Channels Carlo Carmelo S. Gatuslao revealed BPI is considered the leader in mobile banking usage.

“It can be counter checked through the various app stores,” Gatuslao said.

Subscriber base targeting for mobile banking is guided by a minimum 40-percent annual average growth rate thus an additional 360,000 subscribers could well be the minimum target for 2016.

According to the International Data Corp. (IDC), smartphone shipments are forecast to grow by 11.3 percent this year, or 1.9 billion units annually by 2019. iOS smartphone is forecast to grow by 23 percent this year.

Android presently has a market share of 79.4 percent, iOS 16.4 percent, Windows 3.2 percent; By 2019, Android’s market share will be reduced to 79 percent, iOS with 14.2 percent, and Windows 5.4 percent.

In the Philippines, smartphone penetration rate is 32 percent this year.

The Ayala-led universal bank has a retail deposit base of seven million, of which over two million are online subscribers, and nearly a million mobile banking subscribers.

“P12.6 billion worth of transactions passes the mobile banking app every month,” Frederick M. Faustino, BPI electronic channels vice president added.

Mobile app is a software designed to run on smartphones and other mobile devices.

BPI offers five mobile apps, one for general retail banking, an app for corporate clients, point-of-sale (POS) app, an app for financial advisory, and an iPad-only app for asset management insights.

Meanwhile, Gatuslao emphasized the mobile banking is important for the retail banking operations of the bank.

“The country’s demographics of a young productive and technology-savvy population do not want to go to branches to undertake financial transactions,” he said, adding its mobile banking is backed by 350 participating merchants.

The Philippines has the youngest productive population age group at 20-45, which are always connected either through the computer and/or mobile phones.

By introducing mobile and online apps almost on a quarterly basis, BPI offers more opportunities, convenience and savings for its bank clientele.