Having started operations in July 1990, BancNet has been known to deliver safe, efficient, and reliable services to its members, including transactions not only at Automated Teller Machines (ATM) but also at point-of-sale (POS) terminals, the Internet, and mobile phones.

With a growing demand for more ease and convenience in payments, BancNet’s role as the Philippines’ multi-bank, multi-channel electronic payments network is becoming more relevant than ever. Fueled by its commitment to continuous innovation, BancNet aims to help the country keep pace with a fast-changing world.

In 2017, BancNet played a vital role in preparing the National Retail Payment System’s (NRPS) implementation and became the clearing switch operator of the automated clearing house for low-value, real-time electronic fund transfer called “instaPay.” NRPS is a program spearheaded by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which further promotes electronic payments in the country.

BancNet also positively noted in its recent annual report that it was able to deliver a strong financial performance in 2017, with total assets and total equity reaching P1.19 billion and P1.01 billion, respectively.

“We sustained a steady growth with a 6.95% increase in switched transactions during the year. Although gross revenues, amounting to P386.32 million, and net income, at P80.25 million, were lower compared to the previous year, the downward adjustment in BancNet’s switching fee translated to a lower cost to network participants. Our composite cost per ATM transaction charged to participants declined by 61%. The year ended with a modest return on equity of 7.78%,” President Cezar P. Consing said in the report.

Another testament to the country’s sole electronic payments network’s solid performance is the remarkable numbers it posted in 2017 and in the early part of the year. As of June 30 of this year, BancNet’s ATM network grew from 19,894 units in 2016 to 20,153; while its POS network showed an increase from 141,465 terminals to 251,870. Its total active cards, meanwhile, hit 67,635,705.

BancNet also reported that in 2017, it was able to process 630.5 million switched transactions of nearly 72 million debit cards, which grew by 40.96 million or 6.95% from the 2016 volume. Despite these huge transaction volumes, the company noted that the average switch availability rate stood at a high 99.84%.

In the first half of 2018, BancNet reported a total of 310.76 million switched transactions compared with the 300.69 million total switched transactions in the first half of 2017. On the other hand, the company already recorded 1.7 million average daily switched transactions in first half 2018 compared with the 1.67 million in the first half of last year.

The consortium was also able to grow its membership to 121 which consists of banks, cooperatives, electronic money issuers and independent ATM deployers.

In terms of improving security in e-payments, BancNet highlighted its work involving Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) migration and certification, which has helped make payments made through its network more secure.

“BancNet led the industry’s shift to this global security standard and throughout 2017, we supported our members’ EMV migration through technical testing and compliance certification of their host systems, terminals and chip cards. By the end of the year, 86% of members’ issuer host systems and 90% of acquirer host systems had been certified EMV-compliant,” BancNet mentioned in the report.

The company also enhanced the security of online payments on its Web portal — the BancNet Online — by implementing a Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) system as an added layer of security on top of the ATM PIN. This system requires the keying in of other information including username, password, and a one-time PIN that only the cardholder knows in order to validate his or her identity.

BancNet said that it is at the crossroads, given various factors at play that affect the whole financial industry landscape. Despite this, it remains confident, asserting that it has successfully risen to the demands of transformation and evolution through these years.

“The financial industry is being driven by rapid technological developments and growing sophistication in consumer needs and wants. Our challenge is to always stay abreast of and adopt the right technologies to address the needs of our members. We are in a unique position to actually influence how our country’s financial industry can evolve,” Chairman Nestor V. Tan noted.

“To fulfill our mandate, it is imperative that we keep our financials robust and adopt a different mind-set. We should focus more on sourcing capabilities rather than building them; more on connectivity rather than competition, and more on product infrastructure rather than product features. We should explore more strategic partnerships to deliver shared services that will expand our footprint while reducing costs to our members.”

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