BPI builds digital ecosystem, partners with fintechs and online merchants

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) recently announced its digital ecosystem to make it convenient for customers to do their online and mobile banking.

Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Chief Operating Officer Ramon Jocson, extreme right, and Chief Digital Officer Noel Santiago, 4th from left. The partners in the photo include, from left: Monika Sabrina Cagalingan, Senior Associate of Add Money Channels, Paymaya; Kenneth Lee Palacios, Vice President Consumer Wallets, Paymaya; Zoe Ocampo, Head of Online Cash-in and Cash-out, GCash; Paulo Canivel, Chief of Staff, Lazada; Ray Alimurung, Chief Executive Officer, Lazada; and Frederick Levy, Chief Commercial Officer, GCash.

BPI’s digital ecosystem has an open banking approach which means that it has expanded into the digital space that includes partnerships with fintech companies like GCash and PayMaya, as well as online merchants like Lazada. Currently, BPI is working with nine partners for open banking. These are businesses with which BPI has agreed to open its API (APIs are communication protocols that determine how software components should share information or interact), or application program interface, and vice versa, in order to facilitate transactions of mutual clients of BPI and each of the partners.

The partnership allows BPI to extend its services to make it easier for users to do everyday financial tasks such as loading beep cards or e-wallets, ordering meals or splitting bills, sending and receiving money, scheduling branch appointments, or placing money for investment accounts.

In other words, you can now transact with these companies at a more convenient manner while maintaining important security features like OTP verification, strong encryption, and email notification for every transaction.

“This digital ecosystem will enable our clients to shift to digital behaviors for their everyday tasks, said BPI Chief Operating Officer Mon Jocson. “Digital transformation is not just about applying technology. It’s also about changing mindsets and culture, from the inside out.”

“Culture is a key determinant of a successful digital transformation, we acknowledge this and we are working on it. We can’t afford to adopt the latest in digital technology tools without changing the way we think of ourselves and our place in customers’ lives,” he added.

Furthermore, BPI has more than 70 features for online banking and 40 for the mobile app. Some of these new features include scheduling appointments via BPI Online, taking control of card usage through withdrawal limits, setting for into international use, and temporarily blocking debit cards.

“BPI’s digital ecosystem make digital financial transactions frictionless for clients. We are proud to say that we are leading the industry with these features that we come up with almost every month. Being relevant to our customers is important to us as we expand and integrate our presence in their everyday needs and lifestyle,” BPI Chief Digital Officer Noel Santiago said.

BPI has also launched recently its upgraded digital banking assistant, Bea, to make it easy for clients to transact via voice. Bea is the first conversational banking app in the Philippines.