MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Philippines’ first rural bank to launch an E-Money Issuer (EMI) operations, the Binangonan Rural Bank (BRB) continues to innovate and lead the digital banking sector with the planned launch of its own E-Money digital app dubbed “e-pon”.
To bring Filipinos to the next level of digital banking, BRB partners with the global leading cloud service provider Alibaba Cloud and financial technology solution provider Ant Group for the upcoming e-pon digital banking app that will bring further convenience to the way Filipinos avail of BRB’s digital-driven products and services.
e-pon digital app, supported by Alibaba Cloud’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) system, will allow users to enjoy a digital lifestyle in a safe and convenient way and meet their daily needs such as deposit, withdrawal, and fund transfer faster.
Payments will be easier with the app to serve as a mobile payment gateway for merchants, as well as offer payment tie-ups with different businesses and government entities. It will also provide easy access to other financial services such as loans and investments.
Users can also look forward to e-pon’s seamless, cashless transactions that will make shopping safer and more enjoyable.
“We are confident that the favorable prospects in the digital financial sector will continue in the near future and result in significant growth most especially for our E-Money products and services. Through our planned digital app, we are making sure that we will be able to take advantage of these growth opportunities while improving further the access of Filipinos to financial services, online banking services, and lifestyle services,” said Huang.
Allen Guo, Country Manager for the Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said Alibaba Cloud is proud to be BRB’s partner in bringing more innovative and reliable digital financial services to Filipinos.
“We are glad to have this opportunity to be part of the progress of digital banking in the Philippines through our exciting partnership with BRB. Digital banking, E-money in particular, is not just a trend – it’s the future. We are looking forward to the introduction of BRB’s e-pon app that will bolster financial inclusivity in the country while bringing seamless and convenient digital experiences to local consumers,” said Guo.
left to right: Christopher Aldaba, BRB treasurer; Christian Li, e-pon project manager; Patrick Richmond, Business
Development Manager, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence; Catherine Paler, Business Development Manager, Alibaba Cloud
Intelligence; Allen Guo country manager of the Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence; Alfonso Huang, e-pon president;
Kenneth Tan, BRB president and CEO; Will Zhang, e-pon project manager; and Antonio Tiu, Chairman/President/CEO,
AgriNurture Inc., and BRB investor.
As the leading public cloud service provider in Asia Pacific, Alibaba Cloud has a solid track record in providing reliable, robust, and secure cloud computing services to its customers all over the world. Alibaba Cloud is also one of the members of the FinTech Alliance of the Philippines, offering its expertise in cloud technology to provide appropriate solutions to address issues and challenges in the sector.
Another key contributor to the partnership is Ant Group, which support BRB with its Electronic and Mobile-Platform solutions to enable the delivery of seamless financial services.
BRB is the first Rural Bank in the Philippines to launch E-Money Issuer (EMI) operations in 2022, after it became one of the few financial institutions granted the coveted EMI license by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in 2017.
BRB Digital offers E-Money digital services such as issuance of cash cards, cash in/loading of cash cards, cash-out from cash cards, Instapay/Inter Bank Fund Transfer transactions on cash cards, Bills payment using cash cards, and E-load using cash cards.
