(L-R) BPI head of digital partnerships and ecosystems Eric Faustino, BPI president and CEO TG Limcaoco, Luna Securities Inc. chair John Gatmaytan and Luna Securities president Francis Diaz.- Contributed photo
MANILA -The Ayala Group’s Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) announced a partnership with Luna Securities as it seeks more third-party alliances under its “open banking” program.
BPI also owns stockbrokerage house BPI Securities, which runs the BPI Trade online trading platform.
The tieup with Luna Securities, led by chair John Gatmaytan, allows BPI’s millions of clients to easily transfer money to trade in the stock market.
“Partnering with Luna strengthens our commitment to offer Filipinos the right tools to grow their finances. We look forward to partnering with more companies to widen our reach and boost our digitalization efforts to help achieve financial inclusion,” BPI president and CEO Jose Teodoro “TG” Limcaoco said in a statement on Monday.
Luna Securities was known as VSec.com under its previous owner, the Gaisano family. Gatmaytan’s group acquired the firm in 2020 and changed its name last year.
BPI has more than 126 partners across its digital ecosystem of thousands of business merchants and service providers while the BPI online arm has 5.6 million clients.
“BPI’s open banking aims to establish relationships with external parties and collaborate on new functions, features, and services that will create greater engagement with its clients. This is in line with the bank’s strategic thrusts of digitalization, customer obsession, and sustainability,” the lender said.
Limcaoco said the lender is working to further “embed” banking services to make these more accessible to clients.
“This will enable them to send and receive money, pay for purchases, top up e-wallets, apply for insurance, invest, and trade stocks,” he explained.
For example, the lender allows clients to pay fees to a variety of government agencies through BPI e-Gov.
“Through this online facility, they can pay anytime and anywhere, and be assured that their transactions are protected through a One-Time PIN verification,” it said.
BPI also launched eDonate, which is a dedicated portal for charities and sustainability organizations.
“In the coming years, we will focus on sustaining the growth of the bank’s open banking offerings by delivering expanded capabilities and providing features that will deepen the relationship with our clients,” Limcaoco said.