— Lito Villanueva , Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer , Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation Villanueva ’ s passion for excelling in the field of customer engagement and experience , and working to help Filipinos achieve better financial lives , is evident . He firmly believes that RCBC ’ s digitalisation will bring more success in this area . “ Acquiring customers is relatively straightforward , keeping them to use your product is another story ,” he reflects . “ Before deploying any new technology , it ’ s critical to understand exactly what the customer needs - any product has to evoke emotions , it has to make a connection and an impact to their lives .”

One example he cites is the shift in RCBCs mobile point-of-sale ( mPOS ) business and its rebrand to ATM Go !, which saw Villanueva pull out more than 1,000 mPOS devices that were idle and redeploy them to merchants that had high velocity transactions . This move led to year-on-year growth of 564 % and 521 % in transaction volume and transaction value respectively , and has seen additional 100 rural banks , microfinance , cooperatives and other merchants engage with the initiative .

This type of work has even greater importance within the context of the significant unbanked society in the Philippines . “ Creating an executive position like mine is a manifestation of YGC and RCBC ’ s wider commitment and drive to contribute in the government ’ s push to scale inclusive growth through technology ,” says Villanueva , adding that new technology will be key to serving these customers . “ You cannot scale anything using legacy or traditional banking , or through the current branch network system . Banking , not banks , today is all about always-on engagement . In achieving this , building

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