RCBC to establish rural bank focusing on digital banking

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., the ninth-largest lender in terms of assets, plans to put up a wholly-owned rural bank that will focus on purely digital banking business.

RCBC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Tuesday its board of directors approved the plan in a regular meeting held on Monday.

It said high-ranking officials approved the “establishment of a wholly-owned rural bank with electronic payment and financial services and cloud-based core banking licenses from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which will engage in purely digital banking business in the Philippines...“

RCBC said the plan would be subject to regulatory approvals from the BSP and Securities and Exchange Commission.

The board also approved the increase in the size of the bank’s medium-term note program from $2 billion to $3 billion.

Just last year, thrift bank arm RCBC Savings Bank merged with RCBC in a move seen to improve the latter’s financing and operational cost efficiencies.

RCBC said earlier the merger would facilitate for the RCBC Group more efficient capital deployment, efficient compliance with the Basel 3 liquidity ratios, optimal coordination between the branch banking networks of RCBC and RCBC Savings, medium-term improvement in the funding economics, and operational cost efficiencies.

RCBC is one of the leading banks in the country that offers a wide range of banking and financial products and services.

RCBC posted a 41-percent increase in net income in the first nine months of 2019 to P4.5 billion from P3.2 billion a year ago, driven by the bank’s focus in strengthening its core business, consistently generating double-digit growth in net interest income.

The lender’s interest income from loans and receivables rose 24 percent to P24.1 billion due to higher average loan volume of selected markets.

Consumer loans increased 18 percent to P126.3 billion, including loans on mortgage, automobile and credit cards, while loans to small and medium enterprises rose 20 percent to P64.8 billion.