CTB: Resilience in hybrid banking

Going into its 51st year, the Chamber of Thrift Banks (CTB) in the Philippines held its national convention last July 15, 2025, to look back/assess its achievements and address the banking challenges in the coming years.

- Ruben Almendras

The convention theme “Resilience in hybrid banking”, was deliberately chosen to highlight the ongoing transition from the traditional “brick and mortar” banking to the technology driven “digital banking”.

While thrift banks have always been the preferred banks for SMEs due to its provincial and non-urban locations, together with its personalized ambiance, the advent of more effective/efficient financial technology (FINTECH) systems made it imperative for thrift banks to gradually embrace digital banking. The strategic approach to bridge the digital gap done by most thrift banks, was/is to maintain its strength in traditional banking by digitizing the processes and systems, and providing digital banking in the payments/fund transfers.