EastWest offers rewards scheme for depositors

East West Banking Corp. is offering rewards to depositors in line with its goal to book a 30 percent growth in earnings this year.

Gerry Susmerano, senior executive vice president and head of the retail banking and operations cluster at EastWest, said the bank is rewarding its peso checking and savings customers with an equivalent of 2.5 percent per annum worth of rewards.

Susmerano said the reward is on top of the standard interest rate of 0.25 percent per annum and are redeemable via EastWest gift cards for shopping at any establishment or online merchant that accepts Visa.

“This is the 6th year that we have been running this rewards promo as a way of thanking our depositors for their loyalty. As this is not a raffle promotion, it gives them a sure fire way to earn cool rewards points for shopping, which if you compute, is like getting an effective interest rate of 2.5 percent per annum gross,” he added.

EastWest depositors will earn 100 rewards points equivalent to P100 for every P60,000 increase in the total month-to-date average daily balance of all their Peso CASA accounts from April 1 to July 31 this year.

The additional deposit must be fresh funds and not funds withdrawn or transferred from another EastWest account, including time deposits.

Redemption of the rewards points is through an EastWest gift card, the minimum of which is 500 rewards points and in increments of 100.

The more additional deposits in an account, the bigger the rewards points that will be loaded in an EastWest gift card, a convenient shopping card that is accepted at millions of Visaaffiliated establishments and online merchants worldwide.

The bank owned by the late taipan Andrew Gotianun ended 2015 with a total branch network of 433 stores, the fifth largest in the industry, including its rural bank. It intends to put up 10 branches mostly in Metro Manila this year.

EastWest president and CEO Antonio Moncupa Jr. said during the bank’s annual stockholders’ meeting Friday the bank was looking at a 30 percent growth in earnings this year to reverse the three percent decline in 2015.

“If we don’t grow by 30 percent, we will be sad,” Moncupa said.

H e pointed out the strong growth in earnings would be fueled by the 20 percent growth of both loans and deposits due to the country’s improving economy.

The bank’s total loan portfolio grew 29 percent while its deposits jumped 25 percent last year.

Lower trading gains, higher credit provisioning, and higher taxes slashed the bank’s earnings to P2 billion last year.