RCBC eyes $50M in new deposit products

SCREENGRABfrom www.rcbc.com

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) expects deposits into its recently launched US dollar time deposit products with two- to five-year tenors to reach $50 million by yearend.

Emmanuel Mari Valdes, RCBC first vice president and head of product and sales support, told reporters yesterday that there had been a surge in deposits into the five-year US dollar time deposit product introduced last February as well as those with two-, three- and four-year tenors that were launched in July.

To date, deposits in these products with longer tenors have reached $25 million coming from about 700 accounts, about 60 percent of which are corporations. By yearend, the new products would comprise a tenth of the $650 million in total US dollar time deposits that RCBC aims to generate in 2014, according to Valdes.

The US dollar time deposit products with tenors of less than a year still contributed the bulk of the bank’s foreign currency deposit unit (FCDU), with $515 million from about 1,000 retail and corporate accounts as of Aug. 29, said Roel Lustado, RCBC vice president and head of deposits, investments and cross-selling.

Lustado said that the bank benefited from the low minimum placement volume of just $1,000 for its dollar time deposit products.

Valdes said that the low minimum placement volume was put in place with overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who earn dollars as well as their families and beneficiaries here who receive the denomination in mind.

“We try to entice them—rather than spend, they can park a portion of their income on a regular basis. Our competitive advantage is that the placement is not so high,” Valdes said.

Other banks required a minimum placement volume of at least $10,000 up to $50,000, Valdes noted.