Bank of the Philippine Islands' President talks reinvention and digital ambitions

CEO TG Limcaoco says that 6 million of BPI's clients now use digital channels.

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For Southeast Asia’s oldest bank, reinvention and innovation are the key ingredients to how it remains one of the Philippines’ biggest banks since its establishment over 170 years ago.

In the modern era, Bank of the Philippine Islands has set its sights on an ambitious goal: to be the undisputed leader in digital banking.

“The pandemic has accelerated digital banking adoption among Filipinos, and all indicators say that there’s simply no turning back. If we truly want to be the Philippines’ undisputed banking leader, we must ensure that each and every one of our customers, without exception, has digital access to our services and products,” Jose Teodoro “TG” Limcaoco, president and CEO of BPI, told Asian Banking & Finance in an exclusive interview.

Since assuming the leadership of BPI in 2022, Limcaoco has pushed BPI’s position as a pioneer in local banking — the very quality that has allowed it to thrive in every era.

“We doubled down on digitalisation over the past two decades as online banking transformed into mobile banking. We brought banking services that were only available on desktops to smartphones,” he said.

“BPI’s spirit of innovation has enabled the bank to become a pioneer in various aspects of banking. In the 1980s, BPI launched the Express Teller system and introduced the first 24-hour ATM service in the Philippines. We later on launched the country’s first debit card system. In the 1990s, BPI began offering phone banking and then introduced Express Online,” Limcaoco added.

More recently, BPI introduced the mobile wallet in 2012 for retail payments, the country’s first bank-initiated contactless payment system.