Bank of Commerce, an affiliate of San Miguel Corp., is increasing investments in information technology and digital infrastructure to accelerate growth post-pandemic.
The bank said in a statement the investments would enable it to optimize operations and further improve customer experience across multiple channels.
“The banking sector is essential to our country’s post-pandemic recovery, and we want Bank of Commerce to play a more significant role in San Miguel’s overall efforts to help boost our economy,” San Miguel president and chief executive Ramon Ang said.
“Upgrading its IT and digital infrastructure is key to meeting the challenges of banking in the new normal and serving the needs of retail customers, SMEs and corporate clients. We believe in the bank’s strong potential, that’s why we are investing to upgrade and enhance its capabilities to serve more clients,” Ang said.
Bank of Commerce also invested in improving digital capabilities through enhanced mobile banking and web platform that was made more secure and convenient through biometrics and a suite of new features.
The bank completed systems upgrade of key services including treasury, trust banking and anti-money laundering.
“We are committed to embracing new technologies to strengthen our core functions and governance, unleash capabilities to integrate our services, realize operational efficiencies and reduce transaction costs. Ultimately, this will redound to providing an exceptional customer experience in the new normal,” BoC president and chief executive Michelangelo Aguilar said.
The bank allocated P1 billion this year to upgrade core banking system and refresh ATM fleet across the country, including the installation of additional machines at strategic offsite locations.
“Digital banking is on the rise and will continue post-COVID as many people have experienced its convenience. By deciding early on to upgrade our digital assets, we are now in a position to reach out and offer more to our customers,” Aguilar said.
Additional IT developments are also in the pipeline to beef up the bank’s performance in trade finance, loan management, risk management and cash management, which it estimates to bring in transaction values exceeding P10 billion from corporate and manager’s check facilities alone and more than P1.5 billion from direct and cross-border fund transfers.
“As we have seen exponential growth in the use of digital services in the last two years, we will continue to study emerging trends and adapt to our customers’ needs. We endeavor to help more Filipinos in their recovery from the pandemic by providing relevant digital banking solutions to make smart financial decisions,” said Aguilar.
