Japan’s biggest bank picks PH for service operations hub

MUFG Bank Ltd. (MUFG), one of the biggest banks in the world, opened a service operations center in the country to support its operations abroad.

In a statement on Monday, the bank said it recently had a soft launch of its Global Services Operations Center, planning to start operations on Aug. 20 of this year.

MUFG said it planned to further improve the productivity of its operations in overseas units and to develop an efficient operations platform to support its transaction banking business.

The bank picked the Philippines after a preliminary study of the centralization of operations in the Asian region started in April 2015, marking its first centralized service center that caters to various countries. Considered as Japan’s premier bank, MUFG has a global network of around 50 countries.

“This is our first centralized operations center covering different countries, and it is aligned with our strategy to strengthen our competitiveness,” said Kanetsugu Mike, MUFG Bank president and CEO.

The center is located in Makati City in the same building that houses MUFG’s Manila branch.

The bank cited the country’s English-speaking population as one of the factors behind its decision as well as the capacity of the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

Initially hiring around 50 people, mostly local workers, the GSOC will handle market back operations, corporate operations and foreign remittance. Its scope of services would be expanded later, the bank said.

GSOC will contribute to the establishment of a solid operations foundation by standardizing and improving the quality of operations in the Asian region, the company said. For a start, the bank said some operations will be transferred from MUFG’s Singapore office.

“I wish to underscore our ongoing commitment to the development of this great nation,” the bank’s president added.