RCBC to expand products, services for SMEs as it banks on sector for growth
RIZAL COMMERCIAL Banking Corp. (RCBC) is looking to tap small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for growth and plans to use technology to expand its products and services for the sector.
“We really like the way SMEs are moving. We think SMEs are coming out of the pandemic very strongly, and therefore, we do want to throw a lot of resources and energy behind growing our business with the SME sector,” RCBC Executive Vice- President and Global Transaction Banking Group Head Emmanuel T. Narciso said in an interview with BusinessWorld.
Mr. Narciso said RCBC is investing in technology to boost its services for the SME segment.
“We’re really looking at how we can leverage digital, which was, in the past, more in the realm of the large corporate and the retail side. We’re looking at how we can leverage that on the SME side to deliver better products and to be more efficient in terms of how we deliver those products for them,” he said.
“On the SME side… that’s where we want to throw the digital energy, so to speak,” Mr. Narciso said, adding they plan to launch products and services for the sector within the year.
The official said the bank’s ongoing initiatives are seen to help continue its growth momentum.
“We have a lot of capital coming in from SMBC (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.), the Japanese bank, which is the 12th largest bank in the world. So, you put all that together, we’re very well positioned to be able to use that capital to boost the income of the bank even more,” Mr. Narciso said.
“We’re all hoping that the economy picks up… As you know the biggest income of a bank comes from net interest income. So, we have deposits, we’ve been growing deposits very well. But if we don’t lend that out, the net interest income doesn’t grow as fast. So, we’re really hoping that the economy puts us in a position where all the capital and all the deposits which we’re growing, we’re able to deploy that into earning assets,” he added.
SMBC in November hiked its stake in RCBC to 20% from 5%, infusing P27.1 billion in fresh capital into the local bank.
RCBC’s attributable net income increased by 71% to P12.1 billion in 2022 from P7.1 billion in the year prior on the back of improved performance across its core businesses.
This translated to a return on equity of 11.2% and a return on assets of 1.2%.
The bank had a consolidated network of 462 branches, 1,352 automated teller machines (ATM), and 1,559 ATM Go terminals nationwide at end-2022.
RCBC’s shares closed at P23.95 each on April 5, up by P1.08 or by 4.72% from the previous day. — A.M.C. Sy
