A view of the RCBC building in Makati on August 24, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File 

MANILA —  Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) is not keen on applying for a digital bank license, but plans to grow its mobile app instead, its president and CEO Eugene Acevedo said Monday.

Acevedo said he was seeing huge growth in the digital space, but he did not see the need to apply for a digital bank license.

“We don’t need a digital bank license. We are already lending digitally using our mobile apps,” Acevedo told reporters at the sideline of The Business Manual CEO Awards where he was one of the awardees.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas recently allowed the application of new digital bank licenses or the conversion of traditional banks into digital entities effective January 1, 2025.

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But for Acevedo, their mobile app is already proving to be a good digital tool for their clients. He shared that half of RCBC’s personal loans are applied via the app and he expected that eventually all personal loans could be accessed through the digital platform and no longer at the physical branches.

“About half of our personal loans are already sold through digital channels — salary loans, personal loans… We expect in the next few years, we will be approaching 90 to 100 percent,” he said

He also assured the public that even if RCBC was pushing for digital platforms for loans, it remained strict with the assessment of borrowers.

“There has been a migration rather to the digital channels. It’s easier, it’s less costly to do it in the digital channels. Which doesn’t say the credit is good just because it’s digital. Credit assessments continue to be a serious consideration,” he said.

He said that with the help of RCBC’s secured digital platform, he was confident of “anywhere from 20 to 30 percent loan growth on the consumer side, where it remains to be healthy and strong.” 

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