THE PHILIPPINES FIRST BANK CULTURE
by Joer Torrero
The
Culture of Being the First
It was established on August 1, 1851 as the “El Banco
Espaṅol Filipino de Isabel II”. Known as the oldest bank in the Philippines
that is still in operation. On January 1, 1912, its name was changed to Banco de las Islas Filipinas or Bank of
the Philippine Islands. BPI is known of its culture of being the “first” in
many aspects and concepts of Philippine Banking. Listed below are the firsts of
BPI;
- BPI is the first bank in the Philippines, and in Southeast Asia.
- BPI is the first bank to issue the Philippine peso
- Introduced branch banking by opening its first branch outside Manila in Iloilo on March 15, 1897.
- BPI financed the first rail system, telephone system, electric power utility, and steamship service in the Philippines
- BPI established the Philippines' first ATM system, with its ATMs being called Express Tellers. The system eventually evolved into the Expressnet ATM consortium, which has seven members
- The first bank in Bancassurance
- Expressnet is also known for its Express Payment System (EPS), which was at first the debit card system of the BPI Express Teller ATM card.
- BPI pioneered the concept of the banking kiosk in the Philippines, with its kiosks being called Express Banking Centers or EBCs or by its older name, the Convenience Banking Center. EBCs can be found in malls, supermarkets, plazas and other locations and operate beyond normal Philippine banking hours, which are from 9.00 to 15.00 on weekdays.
- The first local bank in the Philippines to introduce 24 hour branch banking called BPI Express.
- BPI is the first bank in the Philippines to make use of a call center and telephone banking, known as BPI Express Phone
- Launched BPI Express Mobile - Mobile Banking facility which enables accountholders to inquire about their deposit,credit card, auto and housing loan and BPI Prepaid Card balances, transfer funds between enrolled deposit accounts, pay bills to over 200 merchants, reload Globe Telecom and Touch Mobile prepaid mobile phones and BPI Express Cash MasterCard Electronic, and transfer money to and from Globe GCash wallet.
- Launched BPI Express Credit Gold MasterCard with Paysafe System, the country's first EMV (Europay, MasterCard,Visa) compliant chip card.
- The first airline co-brand chip credit card issued in the Philippines - BPI SkyMiles MasterCard and BPI SkyMiles Platinum MasterCard with its partner Delta Air Lines.
- The first local bank in the country to offer most number of third currencies in its products and services - Savings Accounts and Time Deposit Accounts (As of January 2010) (Australian Dollars, Canadian dollars, Swiss Francs, Euros,British Pounds, Japanese Yen and Chinese Yuan).
- BPI issued its first Sustainability Report for 2008 along the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, the first in the banking industry.
- The first bank to introduced "Bank Anywhere" capability by allowing clients of the bank to transact at any of its more than 800 BPI branches 'free of charge'
- Introduced the country's first branchless bank - BPI Globe Savings Bank (BanKo) using Mobile Money Technology (MMT) (December 2009).
- Introduced the country's first Mobile Mall - BPI Express Mobile - Mobile Mall (2009).
- Introduced the country's first envelope-less deposit machine - Express Deposit (2012).
- Introduced the first automated queuing systems known as BPI Express Assist (2012).
- Introduced the concept of Bank of The Future. A fully automated way of banking (2013)
Reference: bpiexpressonline.com
Being the first to all these, BPI has been known as the
most advanced in Philippine banking in like to terms of technology. Most people
like to open an account on BPI because of its accessibility to any kind of
banking transaction. BPI has the most number of Automated Tellering Machines
(ATM) in Philippines. All the basic banking transaction can now be easily done
using ATM’s such as deposits, withdrawals, fund transfers, and bills payments.
I am a Customer Service Associate on BPI and I am proud to be a part of this
company. Once I encounter customers having problem about an emergency that they
need to send money to their relatives, but unfortunately the bank is already
closed. It so happen that the account of their relatives was an ATM account, so
I told them, “it can still be done, you may use the Express Deposit ATM of BPI.
Even without a card, you can still deposit money.” The customer was so thankful
that he was able complete his transaction, it was around 8:00pm and his
daughter’s bag have been snatch somewhere in manila. Luckily, she still have
her cell phone and ATM on her other purse. Well, I guess BPI express deposit
save the day.
BPI also has its 24/7 banking services using the BPI
Express Phone. Being the first in Phone Banking, BPI can give its client the
best customer relation by phone if 89-100 was dialed. And there is also the www.bpiexpressonline.com, the
BPI website that will serve its clients in Philippines and all over the world.
Making your transactions online is very much convenient. I, as a BPI account
holder also have my own personal BPI Online account. I can do funds transfer to
my other accounts and bills payment so easy. I remember when I was at the mall
with my daughters, we are at the cashier of the department store and about to pay
all the items we bought using my ATM, but suddenly the only ATM card I brought
had insufficient funds. Well, it’s a good thing that I have an internet on my
cell phone then, I was able to log in on my BPI online account do the fund
transfer from my other account. After paying what we bought then, we also eat
in a fast food where Express Payment System(EPS) is accepted. EPS is a service
of BPI where a customer can pay their purchases using their ATM as Debit Card.
It is really nice to have a life style with convenient banking experience. But
as we know, we experience it first in BPI
It is
clear that BPI has a culture of always looking forward on finding the
opportunity to become the first in the mind of people in terms of banking
services, customer relations, and customer satisfaction. With all these
advancement, customer satisfaction is not enough for BPI but the customer
loyalty.
The
Culture on Getting Customer Loyalty
As a BPI
employee, we undergo on many trainings on how to effectively deal with clients
so we cannot only just satisfy them but to also gain their loyalty in doing
business with BPI. The company strongly believes that customer’s loyalty is the
primary factors for the success of BPI. That is why BPI has introduced
different customer approaches that will have a significant effect on behaviors
of BPI clients. And the concept Relationship Management in banking was firstly
introduced by BPI. Gaining customer loyalty are the primary jobs of the
Relationship Managers(RM) of BPI. They handled and closely monitored the
accounts of valued clients and large corporations. They will give suggestions
and offers to these clients on how securely manage all their accounts and have
a chance to gain large from it. These approaches has gain so much trust and
loyalty of customers.
BPI was also
the first to introduced Preferred Banking,
a customer was given a Gold ATM card and this will give them a pass to be
prioritized in all their banking transactions with BPI. They will experience
special treatment from the banking personnel who will accommodate them. All the
branches of BPI have a Preferred Lane exclusively for Preferred Banking
clients. Though the tellers may serve a non-preferred clients, they will serve
a Preferred Clients with deeply smile, “kahit sumingit pa sya sa pila”. And if
ever the Preferred Lane has a long line, a preferred client can go to
low-counters for assistance. And sometimes, a Preferred Client is given a special
rates in all their Forex transactions. With all these benefits, a customer
would normally want to become this kind of client.
So how
would you become a Preferred Banking Client? Firstly, a customer must have a
large placement in different products of BPI such as deposits, loans,
investments, insurances, and credit cards. And a customer must be a BPI account
holder for long period of time. The Relationship Manager(RM) will be the one to
check if a customer has met the criteria and will send them an invitation to
become a Gold ATM Account Holder or Preferred Client.
There is
also a counterpart of this service to corporations. RM can also invite a
corporation to have a Gold Corporate Card. This will also give the same
treatment as to a Preferred Clients. Some branches have Corporate Lane to
accommodate corporate clients with Gold Corporate Card.
Banking
with Convenience
A
customer who does banking with BPI is usually amazed of the system that the
bank uses. Imagine yourself entering a BPI branch today. Before you enter, you
will see the ATM’s, the Express Deposit machine, and a computer for BPI Online
transactions. Then when you entered, the security guard will guide to go a BPI
Express Assist(BEA) machine where you put in your transaction for queuing. BEA
is bank queuing system which was first introduced by BPI. There you chose your
desired transactions and wait for your number to be called. While you are
waiting, you can watch on the monitor screen the advertisements to give you
more knowledge about BPI while you are sitting relax on a couch. Then the
teller will call your queue number and greet you with a smile. Do you have a
deposit of a BPI Check to your account? It’s alright; it will be validated with
same day clearing upon verification of the check. Is your account from another
branch? It’s okay, BPI have “Bank Anywhere”, you will not be charge. Then while
the teller processes your transactions, he will suggest and offer you other
products of BPI. You may be interested of something that he/she would say; he
will give your brochures or briefly explain it to you. Then the teller will get
your name and contacts so he can refer you other who handle it. It is part of
his cross-selling while processing your transactions before he says “Thank You
for Banking with Us”
With all
these concepts, systems and technology that presently used by BPI, we can now
clearly realize why people would want to do their banking transaction in this
company. It is because of a convenient banking life style that BPI can offer.
Being the firsts in many aspects, BPI now is the leader in Philippine Banking, with its high market capitalization, strong Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio and
healthy shareholder return, all promoted and supported by prudent management.
References
BPI Corporate Profile - https://www.mybpimag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=277&Itemid=318
BPI Preferred banking
- https://www.mybpimag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=167&Itemid=200