RCBC sees full-year rise of remittance business

THE RCBC Plaza. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) sees its remittance business growing by 8 percent by yearend as the bank aggressively lures Filipinos working abroad to tap new channels such as prepaid cards.

As of end-September, the bank processed remittances worth $1.45 billion—up 6.2 percent year on year, said Gary B. Villanueva, RCBC executive vice president and group head for global transaction banking.

RCBC and its institutional partners also cornered 8.5 percent of the market in the first nine months of the year, he added.

By yearend, the bank of the Yuchengco group aims to exceed by 8 percent the $2.2-billion worth of remittances it processed in 2013, Villanueva said. The bank is confident it will hit its 2014 target as bulk of the remittances from abroad is expected to pour in during the last three months.

RCBC aims to grow its remittance business by a double-digit rate in the “next couple of years,” Villanueva said.

The remittance business already comprises a tenth of RCBC’s bottom line, Villanueva said, adding that it hopes to increase this share to 15 percent in three years’ time.

To gain a bigger share of the remittance market, RCBC last September launched the TeleMoney variant of its prepaid card MyWallet.

According to Alvin V. Antonio, first vice president at RCBC’s overseas Filipino banking group, TeleMoney will have a Visa function, which can be used by both those sending as well as receiving remittances.

Antonio said that the bank already sold over 500 TeleMoney cards to Filipinos working, or still planning to land a job, in other countries.

RCBC targets to issue 2,000 cards by end-December, and ramp up sales to 10,000 in the first year of rollout, Antonio said.