MANILA -- Online transactions by Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) clients surpassed branch transactions significantly since the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Ana Delgado, UnionBank executive vice president, chief user experience officer and head of consumer finance, said online signups, or those made through the bank’s mobile app, UnionBank online, rose by 665 percent year-on-year last March and this has doubled by July.
She said daily digital accounts opening grew by more than 3,000 times year-on-year last March, and the July 2020 level has risen by almost three times relative to the level last March.
“So people really are taking up digital. They are able to experience contactless banking and we feel that these trends and trajectory are going to continue to go up over the next few months,” she said in a virtual briefing Wednesday.
Delgado said the shift towards digital banking was observed even prior to the pandemic but “the pandemic has truly accelerated at a pace like we’ve never seen before.”
“And I think maybe what we’re seeing is not just a shift to digital but we’re actually seeing a shift in business models as businesses have really needed to pivot largely to digital but also in their business models in order to survive,” she said.
These businesses include the food industry, the supermarket industry, the healthcare industry and the schools, she added.
Delgado said the introduction of more platforms where businesses operate “is really getting everyone to reimagine the possibilities that digital brings to the world and requiring us to re-invent ourselves.”
She said UnionBank started its transformation journey about four years ago and is now reaping the benefits of this shift.
Delgado said about 90 percent of the bank’s employees were able to work from home since the first day of the ECQ and digital account opening platform was ready by that time.
She added that physical bank branches remain an important part of the business but since more people are going digital, there is a need to increase investments and focus on the latter. (PNA)