STATE-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) announced it has “onboarded” nearly 4.5 million unbanked national ID registrants as of end-June.
LandBank reported there were 4,468,249 new accounts that were registered as of June 30, accounting for 47 percent of the 9,484,696 individuals who had already registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) from 884 sites in 32 provinces.
Of the total “onboarded” applicants, 1,225,675 individuals have already received their LandBank “agent banking cards,” which can be used for various transactions, the bank said.
These cards are provided free of charge and with no initial deposit requirement to PhilSys applicants in areas where the LandBank has co-located with the Philippine Statistics Authority in PhilSys registration sites across the country. The bank said these cards can be used by Philsys-ID holders to withdraw cash at ATMs and point-of-sale cash-out terminals, shop online and perform other cashless transactions, as well as receive any government subsidy digitally. The card is also contactless-enabled, which means it can be used for “tap” payments, such as for the automated fare collection system that the government plans to roll out for public utility vehicles. According to the state lending institution, a total of 4,338 Philsys registrants made 8,099 transactions over-the-counter (through LandBank branches), or through mobile banking apps, point of sale and online. Majority of the transactions were conducted in the Visayas as well as in Central Luzon.
LandBank added that facilitating the opening of bank accounts for PhilSys registrants will help ensure the speedy and efficient delivery of future government assistance programs to unbanked beneficiaries.
As for the other digital transformation initiatives, LandBank reported that since November 2018 up to end-June this year, a total of 1,671,470 accounts were opened through the bank’s “digital onboarding system,” which includes accounts opened for clients of the Overseas Filipino Bank. The latter is a LandBank subsidiary and is the first digital-only bank in the country.
For the month of June this year, accounts opened reached 68,863, higher than the 67,889 accounts opened in the previous month.
LandBank also said the number of transactions using the LandBank mobile banking application grew to 47.03 million in June this year from 31.97 million in the same month a year ago. With reports from Manuel T. Cayon