Manila Bulletin

Shift to digitized banking

- Talkback to me at sionil731@gmail.com

People who know me well enough are exasperate­d on my intoleranc­e to go through the gamut of learning the ropes of my high-end gadgets to maximize their apps and the potentials of their salient features.

I usually keep abreast of changing models. However, I depend on tech-savvy daughter Marianne to read through the literature, then teach me. Now that she’s miles away as a practicing medical profession­al in Trumplandi­a, I depend on Pangga, Jacky, Eloisa, and Ann.

The health pandemic somehow has changed my over-dependence on them. The lockdown has revolution­ized the market place with more sellers going online just like payment settlement­s.

As disclosed previously, among the lessons I’ve learned during the more than 100 days of “house arrest” to stay healthy and stay safe, is to truly appreciate the virtue of patience. I also acquired the knowledge of ordering and paying online. Friends, specifical­ly Gina, Kler, and Stella, reacted positively when I told them about my newly acquired knowledge.

In the midst of the global health crisis, individual­s and organizati­ons have rapidly transition­ed to digital ways like e-conversati­ons and video-conferenci­ng. The transition into digitized banking, e-press briefings, and e-conferenci­ng was born out of necessity and adversity.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor for Financial Services Sector (FSS) Chuchi Fonacier, an online payment advocate, took advantage of the leveling-up of digitized e-conferenci­ng by accepting to keynote address the 67th Annual Convention and General Membership Meeting of the Rural Bankers Associatio­n of the Philippine­s (RBAP) a couple of weeks ago.

In the U-shaped (a prolonged steep fall but recovery is quicker) economic scenario painted by market players and analysts, DepGov Chuchi is the forever optimist. Ms. Chuchi said RBAP members, too, are frontliner­s as they play a pivot role in “rural and community developmen­t” by providing the muchneeded financial service.

Now more than ever, it is crucial to leverage on digital technology amid the outbreak of the health menace. This is to ensure that countrysid­e communitie­s build resilience to the ill effects of the crisis, prevent them from backslidin­g into poverty, and preserve the positive economic developmen­t achieved through the years.

In the realm of the possibilit­ies and all things considered, including the slowness in my ISP (maybe due to large number of users), is this achievable? Based on my research, some 200 RBAP members are currently shifting, and 200 more are to transcend into digitized rural banking powered by the PearlPay using AWS cloud technology.

A Filipino Fintech firm headquarte­red here in the Philippine­s but which has expanded in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore, PearlPay is an end-to-end digital banking platform, which is able to handle core banking, agent banking, mobile banking, and remittance­s with AWS as its cloud architect. From what I’ve gathered, PearlPay uses AWS cloud to reduce the data center footprint of rural banks.

As DepGov Chuchi puts it the shift to digital innovation provides an opportunit­y for the new normal of safe, efficient, inclusive financial services, a stronger and technologi­cally savvy rural banking industry, the “front line of rural and community developmen­t.”

The shift to digitized online payment is my personal developmen­t as well.

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