NEWS

RCBC BANKARD POSTS HEFTY GAINS

RCBC Bankard, the credit card brand issued by RCBC, is experiencing hefty year-on-year growth since the bank’s entire absorption of the business in late 2006.

Card issuance jumped by an astounding 201 percent as the company reported 170,000 new cards issued in 2008 compared to just 57,000 in 2006. The total number of cards currently in force stands at 407, 000 last year, 32 percent higher than in 2007. Actual cardholder base likewise grew 45% to 344,000 as of year-end 2008 principally due to new co-branding partnerships and aggressive marketing to select customers.

In his speech during RCBC’s annual stockholders’ meeting, RCBC President and CEO Lorenzo V. Tan said "We were able to forge strategic partnerships, which resulted in a milestone product offering in consumer financing."

RCBC Bankard also gained more accounts under its name as its acquiring billings surged from P8.5 billion in 2006 to P12.1 billion in 2008, while its issuing billings rose from P7.5 billion to P11 billion.

Cardholders’ reliance of the brand is evident as the number of transactions also rose to 4.5 million last year compared to 3.5 million in 2006, while delinquency rate substantially declined from 11.4 percent to 7.9 percent also in the same period.

For his part, Bankard President and CEO Oscar B. Biason said,"Innovative marketing practices, meticulous examination of our portfolio, and an insistence of giving advanced benefits for our cardholders make us more and more preferred over other brands."

Biason said that the public renewed confidence on the Bankard brand as well as their preference for it are clearly manifested in the success of the company’s two recently launched credit card products. The RCBC Bankard Landmark-Anson’s card, a product of a tie-up with one of the country’s leading department stores and appliance centers, is among the most successful co-branded cards, gaining 2,500 applications on the first day alone. The bank has now issued over 26,000 of this card.

The RCBC Bankard Landmark-Anson’s card offers a lot of enticing features for shoppers, such as the valuable Weekly Wednesday Discounts that give 5 percent off on regular items at Landmark Department Stores, 1 percent off inside the Landmark Supermarket, and 5% off on selected home and kitchen appliances at Anson’s. It also gives higher Rewards points for every purchase, free membership fee for the first 12 months, and an ultra low membership fee for the second year onwards.

Another new card, the LJC-RCBC Bankard MasterCard, is a unique, first-of-its-kind dining card in partnership with the highly-esteemed LJC Restaurant Group. Envisioned to provide cardholders with a value-packed dining card, it offers 10 percent discount all year round and lots of freebies, including a free welcome bottle of wine, a hefty 30 percent welcome discount at Café Adriatico, a birthday discount during the cardholder’s birth month, and frequent diner discount.

Bankard Inc., a pioneer in the credit card industry, has over 25 years of experience of card issuing and acquiring. Following the sale of its entire business and all assets to RCBC, the company re-branded its cards from Bankard to RCBC Bankard and now manages the bank’s credit card portfolio consisting of MasterCard, Visa and JCB labels.

RCBC, on the other hand, is currently the country's fourth largest private local universal bank in terms of loans and capital. It has 330 branches and 424 ATMs nationwide and is a strong player in the remittance business with a wide presence overseas through remittance subsidiaries and tie-ups in North America, Europe and Hongkong. RCBC is a member of the multi-industry conglomerate Yuchengco Group of Companies.