Security Bank hikes IT investments

MANILA, Philippines — Security Bank Corp. continues to ramp up its capital expenditures in information technology and human resources in its bid to become the most technology driven bank in the country in the next two years.

Security Bank president and CEO Sanjiv Vohra said the bank is investing heavily in IT and HR.

“We are in a multi-year phase of investments in technology and people to improve customer experience and prepare us for future growth,” Vohra told The STAR.

He said the bank’s technology spend as a percentage of total revenue reached 12.6 percent from January to September last year.

Security Bank rolled out a new tellering system throughout its branch network, including its wealth hubs for wealth clients, as well as a new human capital management system.

Furthermore, the bank partnered with ACI Worldwide to modernize its payments hub and enable it to roll out innovative products and services faster and more efficiently.

Lucose Eralil, executive vice president and Enterprise Technology & Operations Segment head at Security Bank, said the bank is maximizing technology usage and operational excellence in its operations, technology, cybersecurity and customer contact groups.

“Our focus is definitely to use this opportunity to leapfrog. We have a very clear plan (by) 2025 my NorthStar is to be the best, the number one technology driven bank in the Philippines,” Eralil said.

According to Eralil, the next phase of Security Bank’s digital transformation journey is to elevate its channel services for retail, corporate, commercial, as well as micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) clients.

For BetterBanking eXperience, the bank continues to build a new enterprise digital platform to deliver seamless, omni-channel customer experiences, enabled by a future-proof common technology stack, and set the foundation to enable the bank to leapfrog the market in the coming years.

Under its Mosaic Voyager Tellering and Lobby Management System, it provides efficient lobby traffic management, quicker loans processing, seamless credit card cash advance, electronic certificate of time deposit, easier bank certification issuance, and preferential queuing for wealth and gold clients.

For its payment hub and gateway program, Eralil said Security Bank embarks on an enterprise-aligned payment rails platform built on cloud native, micro services technology advanced infrastructure with a roadmap to integrate domestic and international payment rails and provide operational efficiency, omni-channel experience, and faster time to market for new payment initiatives.

For network modernization, he said Security Bank aims to improve the overall resiliency of its network, modernize the legacy network infrastructure, simplify network infrastructure layers and improve overall network security.

For the first half of 2024, Eralil said the bank’s entire channel architecture, including mobile and web for retail, corporate and MSMEs, would be new.

According to Eralil, the key focus of the bank for the next two years is to scale up its revenue.

Security Bank is also pursuing enterprise core banking refresh, wealth platform project, HCM (human capital management) Employee Resources Online (HeRO), lending modernization and foundational technology stack refresh.

“This is the journey that we’ve been on from 2022 and with a very clear target by 2025 to change the landscape of how technology use in Security Bank and use it as an opportunity to leapfrog. Not to become like the others, but use the opportunity to leapfrog,” Eralil said.