BancNet expands membership to 1,113

MANILA, Philippines - The BancNet ATM consortium has expanded its membership base to 1,113 banks and outsourcing provides as of end-June.

The eight new members are: the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), One Network Bank (ONB), Card SME Bank, Partner Rural Bank of Cotabato, Entrepreneur Bank, Bank of Makati, and Korea Exchange Bank.

All eight banks are presently undergoing various stages of connectivity or pilot testing with the ATM network.

BancNet executive vice president and chief operating officer Aristeo P. Zafra Jr. said BPI has renewed its membership, as well as retained the outsourcing services of BancNet for Expressnet, the proprietary ATM network of BPI.

The BPI portfolio, includes BPI Family Savings Bank, BPI Direct and BPI Globe BangKO, roughly equivalent to 800 branches and nearly double the number of ATMs.

On the other hand, ONB operates 91 regular branches and more than a hundred ATMs in Iloilo and Mindanao.

Card SME Bank has six branches and Entrepreneur Bank has eight, all operating in Laguna. Partner Rural Bank of Cotabato has five, Cooperative Bank of Palawan has three, and Korea Exchange Bank has two.

Zafra said majority of the top 10 commercial banks are BancNet members, as well as the largest, widest or most influential thrift and rural banks.

These include Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), Philippine National Bank/Allied Banking Corp. (PNB/Allied Bank), Security Banking Corp. and China Banking Corp. (China Bank).

The addition of the new members would translate to an ATM cardholder base of nearly 22 million and an ATM network of nearly 9,000, or nearly 70 percent of total ATMs.

Zafra said that by being a member, banks can access other services or outsourced service including online banking, mobile banking and shopping, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, electronic payment system, switch upgrading, and ATM service or outsourcing.

 â€œIt is too expensive and tedious for some banks to set up its own ATM network or online services. But if these are outsourced to BancNet, the same banks can avail of all the electronic banking services offered,” the BancNet official added.