RCBC
Lito Villanueva , Chief Innovation & Inclusion Officer at RCBC , discusses how digital innovation drove financial inclusion during COVID-19
There ' s a conundrum in the Philippines that often halts the flow of progress : ‘ We want digital transformation , but we don ’ t have 100 % internet penetration or data access especially in the countryside ’, says Lito Villanueva , RCBC Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation & Inclusion Officer .
Pre-pandemic , 71 % or 51 million adult Filipinos were unbanked , and only 10 % used digital banking , according to the 2019 Financial Inclusion Survey published by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ( BSP ), the country ’ s central bank .
‘ Many Filipinos already have little or no access to brick-and-mortar banking ’, Lito says . ‘ It takes so much effort that banking is the least of a low-wage worker ’ s concerns . They ’ re worrying about surviving day-to-day , instead of opening a bank account ’.
This is partly due to the geography of the Philippines . As an archipelago with more than 7,100 islands , many geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas ( GIDAs ) are hard to reach .
‘ Even being known globally as the most social media-savvy users , most of our islands are still not digitally connected ’, says Lito . ‘ But while the pandemic highlighted the importance of digital banking , it also underscored that we don ’ t need to have 100 % of the resources at hand before driving transformation . We learned that it is a process , a journey which we can improve as we go along ’.
Lito Villanueva , Chief Innovation & Inclusion Officer
Pandemic-Era Banking With enforced physical distancing , due to the pandemic , Filipinos found that in-person transactions were nearly impossible .
144 September 2021