The Philippine Rural Banking Corporation (PR Bank), the biggest rural bank in Region II and one of the largest nationwide, is always on the lookout for innovative solutions that would make its services more convenient, secure, and profitable. PR Bank is consistently improving its operations and processes through non-traditional means that greatly cater to the various micro-financing needs of its specific clientele.
In line with this vision, PR Bank has partnered with RBAP-MABS, along with the support of G-Xchange, Inc. (GXI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, for its Mobile Phone Banking Services (MPBS) through GCASH.
PR Bank is one of the pioneering rural banks who tried the xMPBS technology of RBAP-MABS that was supported by GXI and used it to disburse salaries to its 1,200 employees. During the initial phase of the technology introduction, the employees were concerned about receiving their salaries through their mobile phones.
“Common to most process changes and new technologies, the employees were initially apprehensive about receiving their salaries through their phones. But by simply educating them on this new technology, the employees learned and realized the benefits and advantages of MPBS. As such, salary disbursement through GCASH has been extended to the other ROPALI Group of Companies.” says Jennilyn Olimon, Special Assistant to PR Bank President Roberto P. Alingog.
Mr. Robert Magalad, PR Bank Sta. Ana Branch Manager also added “I personally prefer GCASH because I can easily send part of my salary to my wife who is based in Isabela. It’s more convenient for her to cash it out as well in our PR Bank branch there”.
PR Bank needed to inculcate two significant points to their employees to enhance their GCASH experience: the users can encash their salaries for a very reasonable price at numerous GCASH encashment outlets and there are many establishments that accept GCASH as payment.
To make things even easier for its employees, PR Bank fielded its own people to recruit merchants and establishments into the GCASH ecosystem, and soon close to a hundred businesses began accepting the electronic transactions. Today, the employees can walk up to stores, restaurants, or shops in the area and be assured that they can use their cell phones to buy food, clothing, supplies, or pay for a meal.
After the initial phase, PR Bank rolled out its MPBS to its clients. Through GCASH, PR Bank began offering Text-A-Sweldo, and the RBAP-MABS-designed Text-A-Remittance, Text-A-Deposit, and Text-A-Withdrawal services.
“We wanted to offer an affordable, immediate, convenient, and personalized way to conduct consumer transactions. We want to help merchants find ways to expand their market reach and reduce their costs,” says Alingog.
The MPBS technology further improved the cross-selling of other bank products. An example is the salary loan that is offered to the employees of a casino client served by PR Bank. With MPBS, salary loans that were offered have provided higher re-payment rates for PR Bank since automatic deduction can already be conducted as they disburse salaries through GCASH. With the support of GXI’s technology and RBAP-MABS the banks MPBS have maximized the potential of revenue contribution of other bank products.
PR BANK CLIENTS REAP THE BENEFITS
PR Bank has met the different banking needs of its clients. Among those is a casino client at the Cagayan Special Economic Zone in Sta. Ana, Cagayan. Using Text-A-Sweldo (TAS), it disburses over ten million pesos every month to its employees. “TAS reduced their payroll disbursement period from five days to one,” Olimon says.
The casino workers, 40% of whom are from out of town, also benefit by being able to send money to their loved ones back home using their cell phones. They do not even have to leave their homes to do it and that helps them save on transportation, time and effort.
With the help of GCASH, various load retailers, accredited GCASH outlets and stores are able to enjoy the benefits of MPBS offered by PR Bank and other rural banks. At the end of the day, they just text their earnings directly to their bank accounts through RBAP-MABS Text-A-Deposit service. There is no need for them to travel to the bank anymore, which saves them time and money.
With the introduction of MPBS in PR Bank, entrepreneurs like Ellin and Perucho are more empowered to grow their businesses. They get access to world-class banking services through their mobile phones, allowing them to focus more on expanding their ventures than worrying about taking time out to travel to the bank.
Through MPBS, PR Bank has indeed broken barriers in addressing the needs of its clients to access banking services. The bank’s willingness to try alternatives and their openness to new technology brought new breakthroughs to their micro-finance products and services and helped them reach out to more clients. In the coming years, PR Bank will continue to contribute further to the banking industry as they grow in great lengths with the help of RBAP-MABS MPBS and GCASH.