The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) targets opening within the year 2.5 times more phygital bank branches than it has at the moment as part of the larger goal of meeting the requirements of its digital clients.
BPI senior vice president Dennis T. Fronda, also head of branches, told member of the Tuesday Club that 50 more digital branches are scheduled to open within the year to add to the roster of only 19 such branches for now.
“Hopefully within the year we have 50 more digital branches opened from 19,” he said.
According to Fronda, the concept represents the marriage between the transactional requirements of its digital-only clients with the need to interact in a physical environment. Such need, he said, requires the establishment of a physical structure such as that the lender now operates out of the Central Business District of Makati at the old Family Bank Building as well as that along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.
BPI also operates so-called prime digital branches which are smaller than the flagship branches that allows clients to do business on unipro counters, as distinguished from legacy counters where one waits in line for specific services such as opening an account. With unipro counters, any one of the counters are able to service the specific requirement of clients, Fronda explained.
“As our president and chief executive officer TG Limcauco says, we are a physical bank with a digital presence,” he said.
Fronda also acknowledged that his unit has quite a number of vacant positions requiring new hands as the ongoing consolidation of BPI with the recently acquired Robinsons Bank left positions open.
“Our unit alone has 900 vacancies,” he said.
He would not detail the cost of the ongoing consolidation but said the migration of some of the affected employees and preference for the work-from-home setup left vacancies that have to be filled.
“We are retaining all 159 Robinsons Bank branches and rationalize them around mid-2025. We will have the full cost of rationalization by then,” Fronda told Tuesday Club members.
As for the competition the digital-only lenders provide, Fronda said: “We’re a traditional bank with digital capabilities. We’re really not alarmed by the competition because we have the physical branches to support our digital operations.”
The digital-only banks issued licenses by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas include UnionDigital Bank, Overseas Filipino Bank, Tonik Digital Bank, UNObank and GOtyme Bank.
