![(From left) SSS EVP Voltaire Agas, SSS president and CEO Rolando Macasaet, Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma, Civil Service Commission chairperson Karlo Nograles, RCBC executive vice president and Chief Innovation and Inclusion officer Lito Villanueva and RCBC vice president Michael Cruz.](http://media.assettype.com/daily-tribune%2Fimport%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F09%2FRCBC-SSS-Award.png?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
The Philippines' award-winning and fastest-growing bank Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation was awarded Best Disbursement Partner for Digital Bank Category at the 2023 Balikat ng Bayan Awards held in celebration of the 66th foundation anniversary of the Social Security System.
The government agency lauded RCBC Diskartech, the world's first multilingual digital finance application in Taglish and Cebuano, as having the highest disbursements transaction volume through digital channel amounting to P10 billion in one year and serving as a "one-stop-shop that gives its users a full end-to-end customer journey."
This was the first time that the new digital award category was introduced during the SSS 66th foundation anniversary which was aligned with the Marcos Administration's massive push towards digitalization in the delivery of government services.
SSS highlighted the disbursement of P6 billion to pensioners, P3 billion to individual members, and P955 million to employers through RCBC DiskarTech. Through the DiskarTech app, Filipinos received benefits from SSS conveniently and had access to a wide-range of convenient banking services.
RCBC executive vice president and chief Innovation and Inclusion officer Lito Villanueva stressed the importance of anchoring every banking initiative for social purposes and aligning it with the collective goal of transforming the Philippines digitally.
"This momentous recognition from the Social Security System shows how valuable it is for banks to pivot towards socially-beneficial initiatives that benefit all Filipinos and to speed-through our common vision of making our country truly digital and financially inclusive," said Villanueva.
Recently, RCBC clinched its fourth consecutive win as 'Best Bank for Digital' from the prestigious Asiamoney. The bank was recognized by The Asian Banker for its scaling its pioneering financial inclusion initiatives such as the country's first community banking ATM Go and the Philippines' first phygital or physical-digital blended banking experience — RCBC Moneybela Barangayan Banking, which provides digital and financial literacy and access to banking services to rural and remote areas covering all 100 percent of the provinces nationwide.
RCBC's digital transformation has fueled its massive leap from 8th position in 2018 to 5th position 2022 in the list of the country's largest privately-owned banks in terms of assets.