HSBC Eyes Bright Future for Digital Banking in PH

Officials of banking giant HSBC are optimistic on the digitalization of payments and other banking services in the Philippines given the large number of young Filipinos and the low base of digital transactions in the country.

In a briefing Tuesday, HSBC Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer Wick Veloso said they see higher demand for digital or mobile solutions for savings, insurance and asset management for retail customers, as well as financing and transaction banking and trade services for corporates.

This, as digitalization becomes the norm worldwide given its big help in ensuring faster, simpler and more efficient services.

The Philippines remains primarily a cash-centric economy, but the HSBC Philippines chief said transactions using mobile phones will continue to increase given continued technological innovations.

Citing the 93-percent literacy rate in the Philippines along with the 67 million Facebook users, he said, the bank is “closely monitoring how the change in customer behavior is materializing in the country.”

Veloso added that HSBC will spend USD15 billion to USD17 billion in the next few years to hire the best people and provide the best platform for digitalization, as well as work with financial technology firms worldwide.

During the same briefing, HSBC Philippines Retail Banking and Wealth Management head Kris Werner said the country’s demographics give HSBC a “unique position” to increase digital solutions given the fact that cash remains the main payment mode here.

He said smartphones enable more people to be included in the formal banking system. As more young people are becoming digital-savvy, Werner sees higher demand from this segment alone, necessitating further improvement of digital banking.

Recently, HSBC introduced video conferencing to process credit card applications, and Werner said this boosted the number of approved cards from below five percent in the first half of 2017 to around 25 percent to date.

“Video conferencing technology made processes for clients easier than in the past,” he said.

Werner said connectivity is a must for digitalization and they are happy because they have not registered any problem with digital infrastructure, noting that people are really pushing for improvement in digital banking processes.

HSBC Philippines Wholesale Banking head Michael Brennan said trade transactions are benefiting from digital banking because online platforms cut cost and improve access to information.

Local firms can now access overseas markets through mobile banking, thus, Brennan said they will develop more products and services for corporate clients.

He considers financial technology (fintech) companies as “healthy competitors” because these give HSCB ideas on how to efficiently implement digital banking.

He added they see more mainstream digital transactions in trade financing in the near term because both the government and the investors recognize the rising importance of this process. (PNA)