The $460 million RCBC-SMBC deal headlines the highlights of the Singapore Fintech Festival 2022
SINGAPORE — This year, RCBC participated for the first time as a subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Japan’s second largest multinational banking and financial institution, as the Japanese bank increased its stake from five percent to 20 percent in the 6th largest private universal bank in terms of assets with an additional investment of USD 460.8 million (PHP 27.13 billion).
Under the deal, SMBC will buy 382 million RCBC shares at PHP 71 each, which is more than triple the current share price and about 1.5 times book value per share. The ownership is also a 61 percent premium to the price paid for the original 4.999 percent stake purchased in June 2021.
The latest infusion will allow RCBC to expand its core businesses in key customer segments such as corporate, SME and consumer markets, retail markets including high net worth customers, mass affluent and mass market with its massive digital transformation power.
RCBC reported a consolidated income of PHP 10.1 billion for the first nine months of 2022, a whopping 88 percent increase from the same period last year, surpassing the PHP 7 billion profit achieved in all of 2021.
RCBC celebrated the Philippines’ digital transformation journey and breakthrough solutions at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2022 at the Singapore Expo on November 2 to 4, 2022. The annual celebration returned as an in-person event for the first time since 2019. During the three-day festival, RCBC showcased the continuous digitization of the Philippines to more than 90,000 participants from over 100 countries.
To bring the Filipino digital experience to Singapore in the most immersive way possible, RCBC used hologram-based imagery to promote its digital solutions to the public, such as its all-in-one financial hub RCBC Digital; multilingual financial inclusion super-app DiskarTech; The Philippines’ first neighborhood ATM and largest last mile mobile RCBC ATM Go network; and the latest phygital or physical-digital solution RCBC MoneyBela Barangaya Banking. These innovative solutions from RCBC are important and life-changing milestones for the Philippines’ rapid progress towards becoming a digital, economically inclusive country.
“Innovation with empathy is using technology not to impress, but to express our genuine understanding of the needs and situations of our customers, and to deliver these demand-driven inclusive innovations at scale. The future is not tomorrow, it is now,” Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer Lito Villanueva said in his hologram message.
RCBC used hologram-based images during the Singapore Fintech Festival 2022
Visitors from around the world were most delighted to learn about RCBC’s MoneyBela Barangayan Banking, a unique banking solution that combines physical and digital experiences to bring banking services to remote and rural areas. RCBC MoneyBela uses sustainable electric tricycles to reach remote communities that are aligned with the environmental, social and governance or ESG framework of the United National Sustainable Development Goals. It provides millions of unbanked and underserved Filipinos in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas with fast digital transaction accounts, while providing personalized basic financial education by Banking Experience Support (BES) agents in grassroots communities.
RCBC is one of the country’s fastest growing banks, and the most awarded for its banking innovations. It is now the Philippines’ 6th largest privately held universal bank from 8th place in the asset ranking in 2018. It achieved and maintained this feat from 2020 to date, even breaching the P1 trillion mark by the end of June 2022 despite the COVID -19 pandemic and various investment activities after competition. RCBC’s continued digital and business transformation further enhanced its value and reach. RCBC has now become the most awarded bank in the Philippines. Among its accolades include being cited as the Philippines’ Best Bank for Digital by Asiamoney for three consecutive years, and back-to-back wins for Best Financial Inclusion App by The Asian Banker’s Financial Technology Innovations Awards.
