RCBC ramps up QR code campaign in remote areas

The country’s fastest-growing and leading digital challenger bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, launched QR-based cardless withdrawals through the country’s first and largest grassroots-oriented and bank-agnostic ATM service — RCBC ATM Go.

The initiative aligns with the bank and the Philippine government’s vision of ramping up financial inclusion by expanding the accessibility of digital financial services in underserved and unbanked regions of the country.

RCBC ATM Go, a multi-awarded digital solution from RCBC, provides basic cash deposits and withdrawals, bills payments, mobile loading, government benefits and pension benefits claims, and bank transfer services through its SIM-powered mobile-point-of-service (mPOS) equipment. The versatility and practicality of RCBC ATM Go has garnered regional and global attention for its high-accessibility and socially-sensitive nature as a banking solution. The service is widely patronized in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas such as Turtle Island in Tawi-Tawi and Lake Sebu in South Cotabato, which are highly underserved and unbanked areas.

To withdraw, customers can visit the nearest RCBC ATM Go partner merchant. Customers will be given the RCBC ATM Go to initiate their transaction. Once they are with an RCBC ATM Go mPOS terminal, they should select ‘Withdraw’, and then select ‘Without Card’ in the second window. After going through the first two steps, the customer should then select ‘QR Cashout’. Using their RCBC Diskartech or RCBC Pulz scanner on their smartphones, customers will generate a QR code which will then be scanned using the RCBC ATM Go terminal. The customer verifies the details, and then customers wait for a receipt to be printed. A notification on the terminal will appear for the partner-merchant to confirm a successful transaction.

The Executive Vice President and Chief Innovations and Inclusion Officer of RCBC, Lito Villanueva, said that the inclusion of QR-powered cash withdrawals advances cardless transactions via QR Ph and is a giant leap for a country towards becoming truly digital. He added that with the introduction of the service, more and more Filipinos that have smartphones in rural and remote areas will cut expenses they incur with commuting to urban areas to withdraw cash or manage their account.

“With the rest of the country, RCBC remains 100 percent committed to the Philippine government’s vision of materializing the goal of financial inclusion, empowerment, and digitization. With the introduction of this pioneering service, it is our great hope that more Filipinos will embrace formal banking as an accessible, convenient, and essential pillar of everyday Filipino life. Banking should never be challenging,” Villanueva said.

“Both ordinary Filipinos and Filipino entrepreneurs will benefit from the addition of the QR-powered service. Not only will Filipinos have non-stop and seamless access to digital finance through their smartphones, but our partner merchants will have the opportunity to earn more and the motivation to continue their journeys as our heroes in making financial inclusion a reality,” Villanueva added.

RCBC ATM Go also broke records and redefined banking in rural and remote communities. It set a record of a 731 percent growth rate in newly deployed terminals. Meanwhile, a 62 percent increase was observed in the number of onboarded merchants, a 44 percent jump in transaction value, and a 46 percent leap in gross transaction volume. The service covers 100 percent of cities, 100 percent of provinces, and 80 percent of municipalities nationwide.