Taking innovative steps toward banking convenience

MANILA, Philippines - As BancNet celebrates its 20th anniversary, BancNet president, Francisco Caparros, Jr. shares with us the direction of which the company is headed, giving Bancnet users, member banks and partner merchants an exciting glimpse into what to expect from the country’s ATM consortium giant.

As BancNet continuously aims to be the number one multi-channel payment gateway, BancNet has enabled customers to easily transact not just through the over 4,200 ATM units that they have but also through the 12,459 payment terminals, the Internet, and even through mobile phones.

Aside from the rise in members – BancNet now has 60 with Philippine Veterans Bank, Wealth Bank, Philippine National Bank, Equicom Savings, and Maybank being the recent additions; and ATM units, the past couple of years also saw the addition of more point of sale payment terminals, ATM transactions, an increase in ATM cardholders (now more than 9.3 million), and the successful launch of BancNet’s outsourcing service.

Given its enviable track record as the country’s largest ATM consortium, it was high time for BancNet to start developing other services to better cater to its clients. Through the addition of ATM switch hosting, card management, and ATM driving for banks to its list of services, BancNet now has an operational multi-institution ATM switch that can issue a bank’s ATM cards, drive a bank’s ATMs, switch ATM transactions, connect to the bank’s authorized systems for approval and interface the bank to other switches like Expressnet and Megalink (locally), and globally, China Union Pay, JCB, Diners Club, Discover Card, and VISA.

BancNet chairman Ricardo Chua adds, “We in BancNet are happy and honored to be part of this banking evolution in this part of the world in the last 20 years. Through our inter-connected ATMs and other online facilities, we have made local banking a lot easier, a lot more convenient. Banking anytime, anywhere is not just a slogan that we adopted in 1990 – it has permeated the lives of our countrymen from all walks of life. Whether we want to get cash, pay a bill or transfer money, BancNet makes it hassle-free for us. True enough, we often hear people say that they cannot live without their ATM card.”

According to Caparros, through Bancnet’s outsourcing service, setting up an ATM switch becomes less troublesome even for banks that are implementing the ATM system for the first time. This is why the company has set its sights on further pushing for its outsourcing service this year along with partnering with more merchants and companies like Asia Pay and ican that have made cashless shopping through the internet and mobile phones more accessible to Filipinos.

Caparros is optimistic about these exciting new additions to BancNet’s roster of services especially with the local banking industry, along with the people, becoming more open to transacting via unconventional means.

“PAL and Cebu Pacific transactions are actually two of the biggest transactions for us with about 2,000 transactions per month. I think this is because people are now more secured about doing payment transactions online. In fact, there has also been an increase even with our bills payment service while mobile banking is expected to improve through our recent partnership with ican,” shares Caparros.

Chua adds, “This is what we consider to be the most valuable fruit of our efforts for 20 years – to know that we have made a difference in the lives of our people. Truly, BancNet connotes easier banking, easier living.”

As for other projects that the company has lined up especially this year, Caparros shares that at the moment they are also aggressively targeting to tap rural banks as well as remittances (this can hopefully be achieved with an upcoming partnership with PayPal), and of course continuously upgrade their systems.

On a parting note, when asked if they consider credit cards as a competition, Caparros says that compared to credit cards, ATM cards are more for small purchases. As an added advantage, he notes that debit cards are considered more secure due to their security PIN feature and that to date, there are currently more than nine million BancNet ATM cardholders in the country who make use of their cards every month.

For more on BancNet, its member banks and list of services, do visit http://www.bancnetonline.com.