The Philippine state-owned bank, the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) has offered its digital platform to the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund, the country’s state-owned housing loan provider.
The digital platform will help with electronic disbursements of loans and benefits to its 14 million members.
Pag-IBIG e-Money card
According to a recent report, the state-owned bank’s new Pag-IBIG UCPB e-Money card will provide members electronic access to cash loans, MP2 Savings dividends and other benefits from Pag-IBIG Fund.
UCPB and Pag-IBIG Fund recently signed a partnership agreement for this electronic disbursement service.
The e-Money card is a reloadable cash card issued by Pag-IBIG for the disbursement and release of the proceeds of Short Term Loans, Provident benefit Claims, Calamity Loans and other amounts due to the members or member-borrowers.
The card serves a plethora of functions. These are:
- Withdraw cash
- Check card balance
- Pay bills
- Transfer funds to other banks
- Pay for purchases
Moreover, the e-Money card is very affordable at only Php 50 (US$ 0.96). The amount will be deductible from the loan proceeds.
Additionally, the card is as good as cash, with no initial deposit required, no maintaining balance required, and no inactivity penalty.
Benefits for the members
Reportedly, the Bank’s President and CEO explained that they are committed to deliver this electronic disbursement service in order to provide better service to the members.
In addition, this will be able to provide everyone with a positive customer experience, which is in line with the bank’s brand promise to deliver personal and proactive service to clients.
The loan provider’s CEO shared that the e-Money card will provide the state-owned firm’s members with faster, more secure and more convenient ways to claim benefits.
He furthered that this is in response to the Philippine Government’s call to provide responsive government services to the Filipinos.
PESONet service
In September 2018, the bank also launched its Philippine Electronic Fund Transfer System and Operations Network (PESONet) service through its mobile banking application, allowing clients to transfer funds electronically.
PESONet was the first automated clearing house under the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The central bank earlier developed the NRPS framework to push for a “cash-lite” economy, which promotes electronic financial transactions to move away from cash and checks.
Its target was to raise digital payments to 20% of the total transactions by next year.
OpenGov Asia recently reported on The Philippines’ state-owned housing loan provider partners for digital payments.
In line with the directive of the Philippine Government to provide public services that are more convenient for the Filipinos, Pag-IBIG partnered with a digital financial services firm to bring digital and card payments to its online and branch channels.
Through the partnership, the members can now remit their savings and pay for their loan amortisations using any Visa, Mastercard or JCB credit, debit and prepaid card.