By BusinessMirror
TAGUIG CITY, PHILIPPINES – The Philippines’ leading digital challenger bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), has launched a groundbreaking partnership with open payments provider Higala, enhancing the inter-banking experience for consumers and entrepreneurs.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Lito Villanueva, RCBC Executive Vice President and Chief Innovations and Inclusion Officer, and Vicente B. Catudio, Jr., Higala President and Chief Executive Officer.
Higala’s platform offers digital start-ups, rural banks, consumers, and entrepreneurs access to a wide range of financial services from various solution providers. Users can seamlessly make payments and bank transfers through their mobile devices.
This partnership is expected to significantly benefit micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), allowing them to receive payments directly into their accounts without the burden of high inter-bank fees and inefficient transfer processes. This aligns with RCBC’s mission to support MSMEs and empower them with digital finance tools.
For RCBC, the partnership enhances its ability to support new players and start-ups by integrating them into its ecosystem of products and services and allowing these start-ups to offer the bank their innovative solutions.
Higala’s mission complements RCBC’s broader goal of making digital finance an essential part of modern Filipino life. RCBC has been focusing on MSMEs, consumers, and underbanked Filipinos by creating and innovating products that meet their needs and aspirations. This mission is embodied in RCBC’s DiskarTech, ATM Go, Pulz, and Boz applications, which leverage technology to make banking accessible and life-enabling.
Lito Villanueva expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, highlighting its potential to elevate financial inclusion in the country and provide more opportunities for MSMEs and ordinary Filipinos.
“Higala and RCBC share a vision of a country where finance is accessible to all, enabling dreams and aspirations. By forging this partnership, RCBC is proud to advance our financial inclusion efforts, creating more opportunities for entrepreneurs and consumers to experience fun, hassle-free, and empowering banking,” said Villanueva.
“We are excited to partner with RCBC, a leader in financial services innovation focused on serving our MSMEs and unserved communities to advance financial inclusion. Through the partnership, RCBC and Higala will work to accelerate the participation of all FIs for a truly interoperable payment system, bring down transaction costs by leveraging digital public goods, and develop an ecosystem of fintech institutions and value-added service providers to offer innovative solutions that meet the needs of the market,” said Catudio.
RCBC’s commitment to accessible and inclusive banking has propelled it from eighth place in 2018 to fifth place by the end of 2023 among the largest private universal banks in terms of assets, earning numerous regional and global awards for its contributions to financial inclusion.
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