Tuesday, August 12, 2014

THE PHILIPPINES FIRST BANK CULTURE


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 Preferred banking - https://www.mybpimag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=167&Itemid=200