Digitally curious consumers in the country have prompted the bank to accelerate cloud computing to increase financial inclusion and innovation.
As cloud technologies continue to disrupt traditional banks in the Philippines, the financial ecosystem there is banking on a more trusted digital foundation to accelerate innovation for the future.
This has prompted UnionBank to embark on an urgent path to improve access to financial services for its unbanked and underbanked consumers across the nation, especially amidst a pandemic whose end is nowhere in sight.
According to the bank’s Senior Executive Vice President Chief Technology & Operations Officer and Chief Transformation Officer, Henry R. Aguda, despite the reduced physical interactions last year: “We managed to attract 24 million new accounts with a large portion coming from digital account opening. This signals the pivotal shift that the Philippines is making towards digital banking,” and called for “innovative banking services to deliver digital experiences that will best serve our customers’ needs.”
In this vein, the bank decided to leveraging VMware Cloud on AWS to gain the power of flexibility in its multi-cloud strategy while improving agility, scalability, time-to-market and faster recovery from any deployment failures.
With this digital transformation, the bank expects to generate savings of more than 30% over five years and achieve returns on investment in less than 18 months. These improvements will pave the way for UnionBank to respond much faster to consumer needs by expanding accessibility for consumers in underserved areas where ATMs and bank branches are scarce or unavailable.
Commented Walter So, Country Manager, VMware Philippines: “UnionBank has always been committed to deliver superior digital experiences to its customers. With Filipino consumers becoming increasingly digitally savvy, it is crucial for our local banks to harness next-generation technologies such as Cloud and modern apps to boost consumer experience, trust and build a financially inclusive Philippines. As (the bank) continues to focus on pushing the envelope on digital transformation, VMware is excited to be part of their transformation journey.”
