BPI, IBM forge $260-million information technology deal

MANILA, Philippines — IBM Global Services, the professional services arm of IBM, has signed a $260 million multi-year agreement with Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) to help accelerate the bank’s digital transformation.

Under the agreement, IBM will provide BPI with information technology infrastructure services to support the Philippines’ third largest bank in terms of assets with its digital development capabilities.

“The rapidly changing business environment requires us to accelerate the pace of our digital transformation. We need to continue to be responsive to an ever-changing market,” Cezar Consing, BPI president and CEO, said.

“Our extended agreement with IBM will help us become more agile in introducing innovations and transforming how we do things in BPI,” he said.

BPI is investing in technology to improve the digital banking experience of its nine million customers. In doing so, the bank seeks to leverage IBM’s IT infrastructure and hybrid cloud management services.

As part of the Digital Experience Solution, IBM said the two parties have also designed an IT environment that makes the most of the bank’s data to improve customer applications and services.

IBM said the agreement will also help to achieve some of the bank’s digital transformation goals, which include the continual upgrades for bank branches with new technology, as well as other financial services apps for customers.

“Banks like BPI are going through a major shift and embracing a complete transformation of their business with advanced services to respond to the needs of today’s connected consumer,” said Martin Jetter, senior vice president, IBM Global Technology Services.

“We are excited about helping one of the leading banks in Southeast Asia power its core IT infrastructure and bring new digital experiences with IBM Cloud in a secure and open environment to help prepare BPI for the future of banking,” he said.

Earlier, Consing said BPI would continue to allot between six and seven percent of its total revenues for IT and cybersecurity.

Revenues of the bank climbed by 6.7 percent to P71.02 billion last year from P66.55 billion in 2016. This means the bank spent between P4.3 billion and P5 billion for IT and cybersecurity last year.