Rural banking breaks barriers with Asenso Mobile APP
THE Rural Bank of Guinobatan, Inc. (RBGI) recently launched the Asenso Mobile APP for the primary purpose of breaking location barriers to reach more people and be able to provide financial services to the needy. The app hopes to provide local business owners easy access to RBGI’S financial services. Clients can easily open and monitor their bank accounts, and receive from or transfer money to other accounts anytime, anywhere, and from any digital device.
The first rural banking mobile app in the whole of the Bicol region, this innovation is a fitting match for MSMES as it will play a significant role in the times to come.
Engr. Paulo Honrado, RBGI president and lead visionary whose passion for financial inclusivity, collaboration, and digital transformation sets the direction for the bank’s services and innovations, said. “We are very proud of this product. This is the beginning of a long-term innovation map to transform the lives of the countryside for the years to come.”
Rising above the challenges of the pandemic, RBGI pioneered a Bicol rural banking first that highlights features allowing for convenient, smooth, and lowtouch transactions right at one’s fingertips. “The growing smartphone usage even in our locality inspired us to further push and break barriers. Our small towns are ready now more than ever to experience the elevated banking experience that they deserve,” he pointed out.
RBGI has been a prominent force in Bicol’s rural banking scene in its 56 years of existence. The last five years paved the way for the fruition of the bank’s vision, realizing steady growth in assets and profitability as it posted a 42 percent growth in resources, 77 percent increase in net income, and 40 percent in deposits, solidifying the organization’s stability.
In 2003, RBGI started its Microfinance Program, catering to micro-entrepreneurs. The program was designed to address the need of the Philippine low-income and microenterprise sector to gain access to a wide range of financial services, ensuring participation in a growing economy in line with the bank’s vision of being the government’s partner in countryside development. To date, over 11,000 Bicolanos have already benefited from this program, strengthening their capacity to earn a living and build a path out of poverty for themselves and their families.
Several partnerships geared towards financial inclusion also came to life under Honrado’s leadership including 4Ps with DSWD wherein they provided over-the-counter service transactions for conditional cash grants.
The Farmer Entrepreneurship Program (FEP), in partnership with the Jollibee Group Foundation, was directed at smallholder farmers, empowering them to improve their income by linking them to the supply chain of institutional markets. In 2015, this was supplemented by Entrefarm (Entrepreneurial Farmer Loan) or locally known as the Magsasaka Loan which trained farmers on latest farming technologies, eventually organizing them into agroenterprise cluster for the purpose of consolidating supply and pooling logistics that have direct access to credits as well as broker direct supply with farmer groups and institutional markets.
Rural Bank of Guinobatan, Inc. (RBGI) is the leading rural bank in the Bicol region, with four branches spread across Albay and Sorsogon. The Asenso Mobile APP is RBGI’S first mobile banking app, available for Android phone users, and may be downloaded via the Google Playstore. For more information, visit