BPI eyes clients via deal with Lazada
AYALA-LED Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) eyes to attract as much as 8 million new clients from its new partnership with Lazada E-services Philippines Inc. that allows consumers to avail the bank’s products through the e-commerce platform owned by Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
BPI Senior Vice President Jose Raul E. Jereza IV said the bank has not set a solid target on how many new clients they want to have from its partnership with Lazada.
BPI and Lazada launched on Tuesday its latest tie-up that allows the former to offer its various banking products digitally through the latter’s platform.
Nonetheless, Jereza noted that he would be “happy” if they will be able to capture at least 10 percent of Lazada’s 80-million strong client base by year-end.
“It is like a [BPI] branch in a city with 80 million people. So, if I get 10 percent of that in one year, that is huge,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the partnership launch in Makati. BPI’S partnership with Lazada is the first of an expected series of collaborations by the bank with non-bank entities nationwide, Jereza explained.
Jereza, who has been designated to head the BPI’S agency bank, said the bank will be launching a series of partnerships in various non-bank industries within the first quarter of the year to allow more Filipinos to avail their services.
BPI President and CEO Jose Teodoro K. Limcaoco said with the recent partnership BPI became the first bank on Lazada.
“This is our means of bringing BPI to everyone in the Philippines since Lazada is the most successful e-commerce site in Southeast Asia,” Limcaoco said.
Limcaoco explained that the goal of BPI Agency Bank is to bring BPI to “every” Filipino nationwide by partnering with non-bank industries such as retail stores, gas stations and drug stores, among others.
Lazada Philippines CEO Carlos Barrera said one of the company’s thrusts is to “drive” financial inclusion in the Philippines.
“We have 80 million customers and every single of them needs to be included in the financial system and be bankanized one way or another,” Barrera said.