When the Overseas Filipino (OF) Bank starts full operations in 2020, it will not be like any other Philippine bank. It will have few branches, but its services will reach OFWs even in the remotest work sites in the Middle East.
It’s because the bank is being designed to operate on internet, to serve 10 million Filipinos living and working overseas, rather than putting up physical offices.
A report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Land Bank of the Philippines president and chief executive Cecilia C. Borromeo, who is leading the transformation of the century old Philippine Postal Bank into a digital bank: “We’re working to transform it into a branchless digital bank, and we are in close coordination with the BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas]… Together with the BSP, we are crafting said.
Added Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, who chairs Landbank: “Just exactly like those lenders online—there are a lot of them right? Some lend to businesses, some lend to individuals, but they have a salary-deduction scheme. [OF Bank will be] similar to that, but we will not be only lending—we will also be providing other financial services like insurance, like helping them invest their money, etc.”
The digital OF Bank will also provide a platform for bills payment, Borromeo said.
For Dominguez, the shift to digital makes sense, given the need for the lender to have a massive reach.
“The potential customers of the OF Bank—overseas Filipinos—are more than 10 million already. If you’re going to go to the traditional way of doing banking, of setting up a branch, getting permission from the different countries to set up a branch—it’s going to take you forever. It’s better to spend time on doing it digitally, and that’s easier to reach all your potential customers,” Dominguez explained.
Once established by June of next year, the OF Bank will “leap-frog every other banking institution in this country,” Dominguez told the Inquirer.
==I-try mo ito, Kabayan: Kung interesado kang ma-contact ang mga advertiser namin dito, pindutin lang ang kanilang ad, at lalabas ang auto-dialer. Pindutin ulit upang tumawag. Hindi na kailangang pindutin ang mga numero.
