RCBC gets AA rating upgrade

The Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) has been upgraded to a “leader” ranking by the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI). RCBC’s rating was upgraded from A (average ranking) in 2019 to AA (leader ranking) based on the recent MSCI Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Ratings report.

The upgrade placed the local universal bank among the top 50 banks globally of the 192 reviewed under the MSCI rating system. According to the report, the universal bank’s robust consumer protection programs, sound data privacy and security measures, training of employees in the proper handling of data to preempt risks, and its strong endeavors to attract and retain talent formed part of the reasons for the rating upgrade. The six key areas used for the ESG metric are: financing environmental impact, governance, access to finance, privacy and data security, human capital development, and consumer financial protection. The ratings report also provided a peer comparison of RCBC against five global banks namely China Construction Bank Corporation, JP Morgan Chase & Co., China Merchants Bank Co. Ltd., Bank of America Corporation, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited. RCBC has the highest ESG rating of AA in this peer benchmarking. RCBC chief risk officer and risk management group head Juan Gabriel R. Tomas IV said the rating upgrade attests to the bank’s continuing efforts to protect customers as well as the communities they operate in.