State-run Land Bank of the Philippines, one of the country's biggest lenders in terms of assets, said Monday the number of unbanked national ID registrants that it onboarded to the formal banking system reached 4.47 million as of end-June.
LandBank said in a statement this was in step with the government's goal of financial inclusion for all Filipinos.
A report to Finance Secretary and LandBank chairman Carlos Dominguez III showed that the state lending institution so far onboarded 4,468,249 new accounts or 47 percent of the 9,484,696 individuals who had already registered in the Philippine Identification System from 884 sites in 32 provinces.
The bank said that as of June 30, 1,225,675 or 27 percent of the onboarded applicants already received their LandBank agent banking cards.
Bank records show that Philsys registrants who were issued cards began using them for various transactions. As of June 30, 4,338 Philsys registrants made 8,099 transactions over-the-counter (through LandBank branches), or through mobile banking apps, point of sale and online. Majority of the transactions were conducted in the Visayas and Central Luzon.
These cards are provided free of charge and with no initial deposit requirement to PhilSys applicants in areas where LandBank has co-located with the Philippine Statistics Authority in PhilSys registration sites across the country.
The bank said facilitating the opening of bank accounts for PhilSys registrants would help ensure the speedy and efficient delivery of future government assistance programs to unbanked beneficiaries.
LandBank’s agent banking cards can be used by Philsys ID holders to withdraw cash at ATMs and point-of-sale cash-out terminals, shop online and perform other cashless transactions, as well as receive any government subsidy digitally.
The card is also contactless-enabled, which means it can be used for “tap” payments, such as for the automated fare collection system that the government plans to roll out for public utility vehicles.
As for the bank’s other digital transformation initiatives, LandBank reported that since November 2018 up to end-June 2021, a total of 1,671,470 accounts were opened through the bank’s Digital Onboarding System, which includes accounts opened for clients of the Overseas Filipino Bank, a subsidiary that is the first digital-only bank in the country.
It said that in June, accounts opened reached 68,863, higher than the 67,889 accounts opened in May.
LandBank also noted a sustained increase in the number of transactions using the LandBank mobile banking app from 31.97 million transactions in June 2020 to 47.03 million in June 2021.