By The Manila Times
PHILIPPINES’ leading challenger bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), through its partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), successfully assisted hundreds of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)/Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) beneficiaries to easily and quickly cash out aid from the national government through RCBC ATM Go partner merchants in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, an identified geographically isolated and disadvantaged area (GIDA) by the DSWD.
RCBC’s partner sari-sari stores — Ebanen, Sigfred, and Negros Rice — were able to facilitate over P2 million cash withdrawals by 4Ps/CCT household beneficiaries in three days.
RCBC ATM Go is the country’s first grassroots-based, bank agnostic, and last mile handheld automated teller machine which utilizes mobile point-of-sale devices to dispense financial services in unbanked and underserved communities.
RCBC is currently the only Philippine private universal bank that has the most extensive reach covering 100 percent of the country across all its 82 provinces with close to 2,000 terminals operated by thousands of its partner merchants. More than 65 percent of RCBC ATM Go’s financial transactions are social grant cash withdrawals by CCT/4Ps household beneficiaries of the national government mostly residing in remote communities. RCBC is also the only Philippine bank that has the most number of ATM Go terminals in excess of 100 units servicing all five provinces under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao covering Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi Tawi.
Under the RCBC-DSWD Memorandum of Agreement signed in December 2022, RCBC will provide alternative payout channels for 4Ps/CCT beneficiaries. Prior to this engagement, RCBC has already collaborated with DSWD during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, RCBC was able to assist the national government in distributing more than P21.3 billion through its social amelioration program to over 5.6 million household beneficiaries benefitting 28 million aggregate-covered individuals.
“RCBC has been tirelessly working to make banking available and meaningful for all Filipinos through our RCBC Moneybela Barangayan Banking and RCBC ATM Go servicing millions of Filipinos in the countryside,” says RCBC Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer Lito Villanueva.
“The pilot testing conducted in the three barangays of Lake Sebu, South Cotabato in partnership with RCBC has been truly successful. The 4Ps beneficiaries were able to withdraw their grants quicker and more efficiently – it only took them less than a minute receiving the money. We would like to extend our thanks to RCBC for this initiative,” says DSWD SOCCSKSARGEN Regional Director Loreto Jr. Cabaya.
See full post here.