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ATM cards may soon be used to pay for MRT fares


RCBC executive vice president Ismael R. Sandig – seen here posing with the bank’s MyWallet-MRT Card – said that the new product can also be used to pay for MRT fares, a first in the Philippines’ banking industry. Ruby Anne M. Rubio
Philippine banks may soon issue cash cards that can be used to pay for Metro Rail Transit (MRT) fares. That is if talks between the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and BancNet, an electronic banking consortium, push through, an executive said on Monday. Under the proposed partnership, BancNet members will be allowed to issue cards that can also be used to pay for MRT fares. In turn, RCBC is expected to earn from settlement fees to be collected from BancNet lenders since it has an exclusive five-year agreement with the MRT’s ticket provider, Omniprime Marketing Inc. “Bancnet would like to tie-up with us since we have the franchise," RCBC executive vice president Ismael R. Sandig said during the launch of its MyWallet-MRT Card. Besides being a regular card for automated teller machines (ATMs), MyWallet-MRT Card can also be used to pay for MRT fares, the first such card in the industry. “All banks are trying to find ways to duplicate us," he added. “If they will invest on system, it is a huge amount. The market is so huge. There is no way you should stop other banks from issuing. They just have to share some fees with us." Settlement fees for the proposed arrangement are expected to contribute more than 20 percent to RCBC’s fee-based income for the next two to three years, Sandig said. The RCBC MRT MyWallet is a prepaid stored value card that allows cardholders draw cash over the counter or ATM, pay bills via RCBC, make balance inquiries, among others. It is a new variant of the RCBC MyWallet cash card that can be bought through any RCBC branch for disbursement requirements. Unlike a regular ATM account, there is no maintaining balance required. By December, the RCBC MRT MyWallet will be used in the 13 stations from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City, RCBC first vice president Remo M. Garrovillo Jr. said When it was launched last month, the card was only available in North Ave. and Taft stations. By 2010, the MRT is looking at a unified cashless and cardless ticketing system and the bank is “positioning for that," he said. RCBC will be also be tapping universities as reloading stations. Sandig said the bank would share earnings with them. This is better than entertaining a lot of people in the branches just to reload. Light Rail Transit Authority wants to see the success of the MyWallet-MRT Card before RCBC can come in. The tie-up is expected to increase RCBC customers by two million, said Sandig, who is responsible for creating 10 retail banking products in Philippine National Bank. “This is more of a breakthrough. Most Filipinos cannot afford to maintain P2,000 or P5,000. The only way you can tell them to use the bank is lower the price of doing business with them. There is a big business for my wallet card with our affiliates," he said. - GMANews.TV
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