RCBC confident of hitting 2021 digital business growth targets


Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) is confident of hitting its digital business growth targets this year and as well as for 2022 with continued introduction of new features and offerings to boost seamless digital banking services.

Lito Villanueva, RCBC’s executive vice-president and chief innovation and inclusion officer, did not provide concrete growth projections but said they are very much positive to meet the targets set for the year.

For 2021, Villanueva said they will be hitting the growth target earlier in October. In 2020, Villanueva said that RCBC even exceeded the goals in terms of value and revenue set because Filipinos have no choice but to go digital.

Likewise, he said, 2022 is a very exciting year for the Yuchengco-led company. “We have lined up new features, new offering,” he said noting they have slated these new offerings starting in the third and fourth quarter this year  

“We have quite a number of offering or announcements that we will be doing. Some exciting news happening in RCBC in so far as digital is concerned,” he added.

The partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) made RCBC the first local universal bank to have the most extensive reach with registered customers from across all 81 Philippine provinces nationwide through its mobile apps RCBC Mobile and DiskarTech.

AWS plays a critical role in its digital transformation, a work in progress to deliver services to RCBC clientele.

Villanueva cited that through the AWS partnership, RCBC has set in place strategies to achieve their goals. He said  AWS would definitely be very positive factor in achieving its growth projections. In fact, 100 percent of its transaction for Diskartech is already Cloud based.

He noted that RCBC is the first to launch the country’s first and only “Taglish” (Tagalog-English) inclusion super app DiskarTech.

It has the record of over a million downloads a month after launch, making Diskartech the fastest for any local finance mobile services app to achieve such level.

Since RCBC aims to push for contextual banking, Villanueva explained it launched two mobile apps one for the mass affluent and mass market to be able to cater to the entire spectrum of society and to make sure that what they are doing is meant for every Filipinos.

As such, RCBC has the most extensive reach to the provinces through Diskartech with customer centric products and services and easy processing and streamlined requirements with one valid ID to have basic account in less than 3 minutes. Diskartech even facilitates the distribution of “ayuda” during the pandemic to Filipinos. 

In fact, Villanueva said that 7 out of 8 transactions done in Diskartech are all coming out from the provinces. This, he said, only strengthened the image of RCBC as the bank for all Filipinos regardless of social status and economic condition. 

“RCBC is the only bank that came up with name after a national hero -Dr. Jose P. Rizal. RCBC and its principals or founder Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengo has been a nationalist and has a big  passion for nationalism and Filipino patriotism,” said Villanueva, who is also concurrently chief digital transformation advisor for the Yuchengco Group of Companies,

“RCBC is for all, not just for mass affluent or people working or managing individuals or clients with specific banking requirements, we provide the opportunity for every Filipino to be able to experience to have access to responsible financial services wherever you are and whoever you are.” Under Villanueva’s leadership, RCBC received five global digital awards during the pandemic and was recognized as the Philippines’ Best Digital Bank.