MANILA, Philippines - It was a celebration of a union made in banking heaven.
Just like the drinks that night, the spirit of friendship was overflowing at the fete BPI and MasterCard threw in time for the 20th anniversary of their strong and fruitful partnership.
Held at the swanky Long Bar of Raffles Makati, the event celebrated the partnership between the two institutions, which gave birth to some of the most important milestones in the Philippine card industry: the first EMV-compliant smart chip card, BPI Gold MasterCard; the first co-brand product, Petron-BPI MasterCard; and the card for jetsetters, BPI Skymiles MasterCard, among others.
The event was led by BPI president and CEO Bong Consing, BPI Family Savings Bank president TG Limcaoco, BPI SVP and head of payments and unsecured lending group Ginbee Go and MasterCard country head Poch Villa-Real.
“In the past two decades, our combined strengths have produced some of the most relevant payment products and services for our common customers. I especially thank MasterCard for providing us access to the world’s best payment technologies and products because of its continuous investments in making transactions more convenient, more secure, more ubiquitous, and definitely better than the traditional way of paying by cash,” shared Go.
Meanwhile, Villa-Real said, “We would not be where we are in this market as MasterCard without great partners like BPI, and for that we are sincerely grateful. We look forward to the next 20 years, making the relationship stronger and better, and on our part, helping our partners transition to the digital payments system.”
BPI and MasterCard also honored Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., Rustan Supercenters Inc., S&R Membership Shopping, The Landmark Corp., Fisher Mall, Petron Corp. and Delta Air Lines, all of which were instrumental to the success of their partnership. Accepting the special awards were top execs Billy Centeno for Petron, Celina Chua for Robinsons, Manuel Alberto for Rustan’s, Anthony Sy for S&R, Ray del Rosario for Fisher Mall and Tricia Celis for Delta.
Also gracing the event were BPI’s Nabbie Alejo, Annie del Mundo, Ezer Escolar, Aileen Lamasuta, Biboy Gomez, Angie Florentino, Kay dela Paz, Bong Lualhati, Louie Mendiola, Ken Feranil and Nadette Chua, among others; MasterCard’s Judith Dayrit, Ailea Zialcita, Rochelle Mayuga, and Chris Paraiso; Petron’s Dodie Estrella, Kristine Lim, Jamie Tan, Makee Columbres and Chezka Garcia; Delta’s Michelle Mercado, Grace Precilla, Bong Barretto and Gretchen Dim; Robinson’s Katheryn Lim and Kay Maagma; Rustan’s Len Leonardo; and S&R’s Ging Altura.
A special video presentation showed the breakthroughs that MasterCard and BPI achieved over two decades with the help of their business partners, resulting in superior products and services for all cardholders.
Towards the end of the evening, the top MasterCard and BPI executives gave a toast to the MasterCard-BPI partnership, and to the contributions of their key business partners to 20 years of success.