RCBC senior vice president and corporate planning head Ma. Cristina Alvarez
MANILA – The Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) has reallocated part of its budget for information technology (IT) to enhance work-from-home capabilities of its employees after the government implemented community quarantines since mid-March.
In a virtual briefing Tuesday, RCBC senior vice president and corporate planning head Ma. Cristina Alvarez declined to give any figure on how much they allocated for technology-related spending for 2020.
She, however, said IT allocation is part of the bank’s long-term strategy.
“(There was) no specific increase related to the pandemic. We reallocated our budget. We have a long-term plan, strategic plan to really invest in our digital initiative,” she added.
Alvarez said they have been increasing their technology-related budget to be able to cater to more customers.
She also declined to give any figures on the number of their customers who have tapped digital solutions such as RCBCs mobile app, DiskarTech.
The app can be downloaded to a mobile phone and among the services it offers include bills payments, cash in, cash withdrawal and airtime and data load for mobile games.
Alvarez said they will be changing their 2020 target for this app because they have surpassed their initial goal, which she did not elaborate.
During the same briefing, RCBC senior executive vice president and treasurer Horacio Cebrero discounted the need to apply for a license to operate as a digital bank.
“We do think that we will take our own initiative in doing the digitalization and digital platforms inside the bank to make it more efficient and consolidated with some of our operations,” he said.
Cebrero said this system is “very efficient for the meantime and we are growing the business.” (PNA)
