BanKo enters Cebu, Visayas market, taps Veco, Prime Asia pawnshops

BANKO, the country’s first mobile-based savings bank, has tied up with Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) and Prime Asia Pawn and Jewelry Shop, Inc. for its expansions in Cebu.

BanKO president Teresita Tan said they were confident of getting new accounts this year as they would tap Veco’s 330,000 subscribers in its franchise area, and clients of Prime Asia’s 100 outlets, which were spread across the Visayas and Mindanao.

Veco’s franchise area stretches as far as San Fernando in the south and Liloan in the north of Cebu.

start

BanKO is a full service savings bank established in July 2009 by the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom and Ayala Corp.

“We started with lending operations with an initial of P350 million mostly to micro finance institutions. Now we have extended over P2.5 billion in loans to over 400,000 micro borrowers nationwide,” said Tan.

The bank however got approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for their retail business in December 2010 specifically for their mobile-based banking services.

partners

The bank then partnered with major establishments that has presence in neighborhood communities where their target clients usually transacts business on a daily basis like drug stores, pawnshops and convenience stores like Generika Drugstores and Tambunting Panwshops in the Luzon area and Prime Asia and Veco in Cebu which they officially launched last Tuesday.

The 100 Prime Asia branches in the Visayas and Mindanao area which includes about 40 in Metro Cebu area will serve as the BanKO partner outlet where customers can open an account, make a deposit and withdraw from their BanKO accounts.

“We follow the concept of branchless banking in the Philippines by training and accrediting establishments like Prime Asia to offer our services,” said Tan.

presence

According to Tan, their partnership with establishments like Prime Asia which has presence in far flung areas usually not serviced by major commercial banks, will help them achieve their objective of providing financial inclusion to the unbanked Filipinos.

“Based on data we gathered, 95 percent of the Filipinos don’t have bank accounts and only 26 percent of the adults have bank accounts. We hope to tap that and encourage them to open an account with us and be more financially literate,” said Tan.

To open an account with BanKO one only needs to fill in the form at Prime Asia with one valid identification card, a Globe or TM sim card which will be used for the mobile transactions and P100. There is no maintaining balance required and no charges per text when transacting.

One can send money, buy load and pay utility bills just by texting using the Globe or TM sim card you registered when you opened the BanKO account.

“The transactions will be reflected in your account real time like when you deposit at Prime Asia, you have to wait for a text message confirming your deposit we credited to your account already,” said Tan.

In Cebu, their partner utility is Veco which then allow BanKO account holders to pay their VECO bills through their account in as simple as texing.

Tan said that they are currently negotiating with two more major partners in Cebu to make their services more relevant to Cebuanos.

“Generika and Tambunting also has presence here so we are just finalizing the arrangement with them to also start offering our services here,” said Tan.

Tan also said that they will soon be partnering with companies abroad so that OFWs can start sending money to their families here through BanKO.

At present BanKO has 222,000 account holders. The majority of them, however are in Luzon and at least 2,000 partner outlets nationwide.