Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines has landed on the list of “most helpful” banks in the Asia-Pacific region during this unprecedented coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, based on the regional ranking made by Hong Kong-based financial intelligence service provider BankQuality.com.
UnionBank ranked number two among 80 banks across the region assessed by BankQuality.com, a site for rating and commenting on financial service providers. It was the only Philippine bank that made it to the top 10 ranking.
“The entire UnionBank family, especially those who served in the front lines during the lockdown, are happy that customers recognize our efforts to keep business and the economy moving despite the crisis. It gives us a sense of purpose,” UnionBank president Edwin Bautista said in a text message yesterday.
The list was topped by Kakaobank of China.
The other banks in the top 10 were: Kotak Mahindra Bank (India), VPBank (Vietnam), Citibank Singapore, CTBC Bank, Taipei Fubon Bank, Asia Commercial Bank (Vietnam), Citibank Hong Kong and CIMB Niaga.
BankQuality.com gathers information on the quality of services and recent developments in the global financial services industry through surveys, seeking to motivate banks to provide better services and meet their needs by providing them with market intelligence and insights.
For UnionBank, the lockdown protocols induced by COVID-19 was an opportunity to accelerate its digital transformation by harnessing data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) as the next key drivers of its evolution into “a technology company, also a bank.”
The bank, which started its digital transformation eight years ago, reported a relatively smooth transition into operating under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). It achieved record highs in the month of March in terms of digital account opening in its UnionBank Online app as well as corporate enrollment in its platform, The Portal.
“The shift in customer behavior we’re seeing today may very well be the precursor of the digital tipping point,” Bautista said during the bank’s recent stockholders’ meeting.
From day one of the ECQ in mid-March, Bautista reported that the bank was able to enforce 90 percent work-from-home arrangement for its headquarter employees, while performing all the critical banking operations. About 93 percent of its branches remained open even early on during the lockdown. Bautista noted that UnionBank’s Ark branches had long been configured in such a way that physical contact/face-to-face interactions were minimized through social distancing configuration, self-service machines and digital queueing platform.
UnionBank also introduced its “Bank on Wheels” initiative and deployed them to areas with large transaction needs. It launched the “Send Money to Remittance Centers” capability in its UnionBank Online app, enabling customers to send money online to the 10,000 locations of remittance partners.