With its relentless endeavor to transform its conventional banking system into a fully digital bank, the Union Bank of the Philippines is recognized as the Digital Transformer of the Year, to the recently concluded Philippine Digital Transformation Award (DXa) 2018, held at Makati Shangri-La Hotel on 20 September 2018.
Organized by International Data Corporation (IDC), the premier global provider of market intelligence, and digital advisory services, the Philippine Digital Transformation Award recognizes organizations that significantly improved their business processes and client engagement strategies through technological innovation and digital transformation initiatives.
The Philippine Digital Transformation Award is now on its second year, this year. According to IDC, this year’s nominations have revealed that many of the industries in the Philippines are keen on improving their business processes and client engagement. “We have seen interesting projects on cognitive computing / Artificial Intelligent (AI), Big Data and Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and robotics process automation are being utilized across industries in the country,” said Jubert Alberto, Head of Operations, IDC Philippines. “This signifies that digital transformation in the Philippines has achieved a macroeconomic scale and has become an important tool to leverage business successes in the country,” he added.
Union Bank, the Philippine Digital Transformer of the Year
With many developments on Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) in terms of technological innovation and implementations, Union Bank is no doubt a digital transformer of the Philippines.
Union Bank’s digital transformation is evident in all aspects of their business. Union Bank has implemented the use of artificial intelligence in customer-facing chatbots, deployed an open API strategy for its partners, and implemented a Robotic Process Automation in their centralized backroom operations for the creation and submission of financial reports and in other tasks leading to the decrease of up 80% in processing time.
The bank has also given focus to improving customer experience through the launching of its new mobile app and website, which has driven customer interactions from 26% to 98% of all total customer interactions since 2017.
The Union Bank’s most recent initiative is The Ark, Union Bank’s first fully digital lifestyle branch. The Ark champions an interactional experience rather than a transactional space, with features that allow customers to open new accounts in less than 10 minutes with virtual telling machines and apply for home and auto loans with augmented and virtual reality experiences.
Likewise, Union Bank has also implemented blockchain technology on their banking processes to lower operational costs. Initially, Blockchain is implemented to streamline their internal banking processes like inter-bank funds transfer, financial and accounting reports, remittance, know-your-customer process and branch locating, among others.
Union Bank is one of the early adapters of Blockchain technology in the Philippines, and now enjoying the benefits not only on their internal processes but also on their cross-border banking transactions. Early this year, Union Bank of the Philippines has joined the American multinational financial service corporation VISA to offer the country’s first direct Blockchain payment system for business called Visa B2B connect.
Through Visa B2B connect, the traditional 3 to 5 working days fund transfer transaction can now be done in real time. This innovative technology also eliminates friction for cross-border transactions and is far cheaper compare to the old banking systems.
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