CIMB BANK Philippines, Inc. (CIMB Philippines) has launched its partnership with mobile wallet GCash to offer a digital savings account.
In a press conference in Taguig City on Thursday, CIMB Philippines said it is set to launch its digital savings wallet called GSave in partnership with GCash, giving Filipinos easier access to a bank account.
GSave allows customers to open a savings account via the GCash mobile application. This will be available to GCash users who are fully verified or have undertaken the know-your-customer process.
The savings product requires no maintaining balance and offers an interest rate of 2.3% per annum.
Like any other savings accounts, funds in the GSave account are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.
The savings account platform is still in beta mode and is expected to be fully launched this year.
Kim Airei Seng, GCash head of savings, said the partnership between the financial technology firm and the Malaysian banking giant comes as there is still a gap that the traditional way of delivering financial services does not fully serve.
The latest Financial Inclusion Survey of the central bank showed that 22.6% or some 15.8 million Filipino adults maintained formal accounts as of 2017, meaning 52.8 million adults did not have accounts with any financial institution.
“There’s a huge opportunity in providing access through the power of mobile technology,” Ms. Seng said in the press briefing. “We are very committed to our purpose of financial inclusion.”
Ms. Seng said GCash and CIMB Philippines expect “huge” demand for GSave.
To keep interest rates attractive, CIMB Philippines Chief Marketing Officer Patrick Cuartero said the lender’s all-digital banking operations in the country lets it save on what it would spend on having physical presence.
“If you think about it, in the Philippines, we have no branches. [Maintaining branches] costs a lot of money. There’s a lot of cost savings that we can pass on to our customers,” Mr. Cuartero said.
He added that the lender partnered with GCash as they have the same vision of bringing more Filipinos into the formal financial system.
“We have a partner in terms of technology — a partner who understands what we try to do as a company. We also have a partner has been doing this a while now in the Philippines,” Mr. Cuartero said.
CIMB Philippines formally launched its banking operations in the country last month, more than a year after it received central bank approval to set up shop here.
It targets to capture 100,000 retail clients within six months of operations. — KANV

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