Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Executive Vice President and Chief Innovations and Inclusion Officer Lito Villanueva was proclaimed as 'CX Professional of the Year' by The Digital Banker's Digital CX Awards 2024 in recognition of his efforts in elevating the digital customer experience of the bank.

The award-giving body is considered the only global program that awards professionals for their contributions to improving digital customer experiences in the financial services industry.

Grounded with the purpose to understand changes in customer needs and preferences, the Digital Banker's Digital CX Awards highlights innovative business models that improve the customer journey in the digital space.

Villanueva zoomed into the launch and scaling of digital solutions since the COVID-19 pandemic up to the present.

These solutions included hyper-personalized and AI-powered RCBC Pulz (formerly RCBC Digital); the world's first financial inclusion application in Taglish and Cebuano - RCBC Diskartech; and the largest bank-agnostic, grassroots-oriented ATM Network - RCBC ATM Go.

Aside from the title earned by the RCBC Executive, the bank was also recognized for its 'Outstanding Digital CX - Bank Cards' in retail banking.

Villanueva extended his appreciation to the award-giving body for noticing and recognizing the improvements that the bank has pursued in enhancing the overall customer experience of its clients.

The RCBC Executive also shared that his secret weapon to a memorable customer experience is to put the 'human' first.

"On behalf of RCBC, I thank The Digital Banker for looking into the impacts of our hard work in reaching underserved and unbanked Filipinos. We always strive to put them at the center of everything that we do," Villanueva said.

"While we are embracing technology at a rapid scale, we should not forget and abandon the element that makes a meaningful customer experience - humanity. By putting ourselves in the shoes of our current and potential customers, the world becomes clearer and the solutions become easy to identify," Villanueva added.