Citi and Pag-Ibig partner for prepaid card

Last January, Citibank and Pag-Ibig launched an electronic disbursement system of members’ loans, courtesy of a prepaid card.

Now, when you apply for a Pag-Ibig Fund loan, say a multi-purpose loan, you don’t have to go the long way of getting your money, which usually requires several visits to a Pag-Ibig office and then going to a bank to encash your check.

When you apply this time, you can opt to go electronic with the issuance of a prepaid card by Citi and Pag-Ibig (which comes with a fee of P70) so that when your loan is approved, you can just withdraw the money from an ATM machine anywhere in the country. In a way, it works like a debit card except there is no bank account attached to it and you cannot deposit into the account — only Pag-Ibig can and you have a PIN too .

Citi managing director and country head for Citi transaction services Mylene Caparas explains this is part of Citi’s transaction services, which  offer integrated treasury and trade solutions, securities and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and the public sector around the world.

“Our partnership with Pag-Ibig is part of Citi’s mandate to broaden its reach to the public sector and create solutions for easier transactions,” she says. “A lot of Pag-Ibig members don’t have bank accounts, and so when they get their check they have to go to a bank and queue up. With the prepaid card, they can go to an ATM machine and withdraw their money, or keep it there, or use it in a supermarket when the need arises.”

The Pag-Ibig Citi prepaid card can be used in over 15,000 ATMs under the combined networks of Bancet, Megalink, Maestro, Cirrus, Mastercard, Visa and Plus. More than half a million point-of-sale terminals in the Philippines will also accept transactions using the card.

This is the first prepaid card that Citi is issuing with a government agency but not the last. Citi has also partnered with the the Social Security System (SSS) as it plans to shift towards the electronic disbursement of salary loans and short-term benefits.

SSS president Emilio de Quiros, Jr. said, when they signed the memorandum of agreement last year, that the ultimate goal of SSS was to “institutionalize check-less transactions to eliminate problems that may occur with sending checks through mail. It will offer greater convenience for members and employers since they no longer have to go to a bank to encash or deposit their checks, nor wait for the required check-clearing period.”

Citi didn’t have to build additional infrastructure to issue this kind of card because it already had it. In one of the recent typhoons that hit Mindanao, a foundation partnered with Citi to design a specific prepaid card for typhoon victims, a card they could use not only at specific places (select supermarkets and groceries) but also for specific commodities (no alcohol, cigarettes, but only the basic food needs).  It sped up relief efforts and ensured the donations were used for the right things.

The public sector is just one of “clients” Citi provides transaction services to. Caparas explains that the bank also “provides cash management, trade and securities services to companies, governments and other institutions in the U.S. and more than 140 countries.

“Ninety-nine percent of Fortune 100 companies and 93 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies count on Citi Transaction Services to support their treasury operations with global solutions for payments, collections, liquidity and investments by working in partnership with export credit agencies and development banks. We also serve our clients’ critical trading partners by delivering supply chain financing solutions as well as medium- and long-term global financing programs across multiple industries.”

In fact, more than 400 of the world’s top 500 banks and 200 of the top 300 asset managers rely on Citi Transaction Services to provide correspondent banking, investment administration solutions and securities services through our global network.

“We provide customized investment servicing across traditional and alternative investment strategies, asset classes and geographies and help clients meet their performance objectives. We also assist governments around the world to enhance the delivery of services to citizens while supporting the vital need for efficiency reform through e-government initiatives. Transaction Services is an important contributor to the company’s Citi for Cities initiative, which helps cities address the needs of their rapidly growing populations through improvements in citywide efficiency, infrastructure modernization, and increased citizen empowerment and access.”

In the Philippines, Citi provides the most comprehensive and advanced range of cash management, trade services, and global securities and funds services. It has been chosen the house bank by a majority of the largest and most important local and international companies and financial institutions in the country.

Over the past 12 months Citi prepaid cards have further strengthened the range of Citi’s cash management solutions.  It provides the only instant issue solution card together with the standard commercial prepaid card solutions on the multi awarded electronic card platform that delivers the widest network ATM access and is accepted in 27 million merchants in over 140 countries.   

“The launch of our first public sector partnership — Pag-Ibig Citi prepaid card — offers the potential to reach as many as 12 million employee-members,” says Caparas.