UnionBank data science, AI experts discuss importance ofcustomer centricity, collaboration in banking

Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) and US-based data and artificial intelligence (AI) services provider TripleBlind recently held a webinar on collaborating with AI tools in financial service. The Bank’s Chief Data & AI Officer Dr. David Hardoon, and Head of AI Center of Excellence Dr. Adrienne Heinrich, discussed the importance of customer centricity and collaboration in providing data and AI-driven solutions to customers.

Dr. Hardoon presented customer centricity as a very important component of banking and finance, as this mindset will enable banks and other financial solutions providers to create products and services that are more personalized and address customers’ unique needs.

"Everything that we do—when we go buy a car, when dealing with insurance or healthcare, thinking of our future house—ultimately is situated and substantiated on our finances. So, how do we go about truly personalizing and accommodating one's need? It's important to really have that centricity," Dr. Hardoon stressed. 

Don’t become a money mule with these tips

As harmless as it looks, being a money mule is punishable by law—so it’s best to steer clear of it

With all the fraud and cybercrime unfortunately happening today, one harmless-looking act is transferring money between bank accounts for someone else. While it seems like such a transaction doesn’t break any rules, if you participate in it, you may unwittingly become an illegal money mule for cybercriminals and fraudsters.

A money mule is someone who moves illegally acquired money on behalf of other people, in exchange for a small commission or fee. This is actually a crime prohibited by Republic Act 9160, or the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001. If you get caught being a money mule, you can get up to seven years of jail time and a fine of up to P3 million—all for receiving and transferring money in your bank account!

RDB Asia Pacific Launches Singapore Operations To Kick-Off 2022

RDB starts the new year with a spring in its step, as it extends operations to the Lion City with its newest Singaporean partner and local expert, Sherman Tan. As one of Southeast Asia’s trading capitals and home to most International organizations’ Asian hubs, it was no surprise that Singapore was the chosen destination for RDB APAC’s first step out of Manila. Despite stringent travel restrictions currently in place in most of Asia, in good RDB form, it all happened virtually through varying time zones and without any RDB team member ever setting foot on Singapore.

Building a bridge towards their Southeast Asian neighbor did not happen overnight. The foundation was laid by two old confidantes and work colleagues. RDB APAC’s Managing Partner, Jerianne Ejercito, and Sherman Tan are old buddies in the world of Media in the region. Both made waves together during the last Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) hosted in the Philippines, teaming up with Havas Ortega to bring the sporting event’s marketing to life. Their already proven partnership has planted not only a seed of friendship, but confidence and trust in each other's ability to work across borders, markets, and competences. Years later, they find themselves chasing the same north star once again, this time under the RDB banner, inspired by the same ideals in building a more sustainable Asia Pacific.

“I’m extremely excited to be part of the RDB Global team and looking forward to my new role with the Agency. I see an opportunity with RDB’s strength in Content Creation and Brand Development, using my experience and network, I’m confident we can grow the agency’s business in APAC.”

Union Bank of the Philippines Selects METACO and IBM to Orchestrate its Digital Asset Custody Operations

"METACO Harmonize provides orchestration layer for managing bank’s digital asset operations"

METACO, the leading provider of security-critical software and infrastructure to the digital asset ecosystem, has announced that Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) is implementing its digital asset management services. UnionBank is deploying services on IBM Cloud, in order to leverage the confidential computing capabilities of IBM’s digital asset infrastructure which are fully integrated with METACO’s digital asset orchestration system, METACO Harmonize.  

One of the largest universal banks in the Philippines, with over $15 billion in assets under management, UnionBank, will leverage METACO Harmonize, METACO’s digital asset orchestration system, to manage its digital asset operations.  UnionBank can improve insurability with additional FIPS 140-2 Level 4 certified physical controls for managing and migrating keys,  mitigate potential operational risk and loss events through trusted threshold signatures and hardened policies, and address insider collusions with third-party audited source code deployments. These capabilities are supported by IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services

UnionBank at 40: Future Forward, a leap to enduring greatness

Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) is widely-known to have been trailblazing many firsts in the country since it began operations forty years ago. UnionBank has always been among the first to embrace technological innovations to empower its customers into the future of banking. The Bank’s 40-year journey began with a simple vision: to become one of the top three universal banks in the country with respect to market capitalization, profits, and customer coverage.

UnionBank began building the foundations for its operations in 1981, and in just a year, became a commercial bank on January 19, 1982. A decade after, in 1992, the Bank debuted at the Manila and Makati Stock Exchanges in June of that year, and was granted a Universal Banking License the month after.

In 1994, UnionBank acquired the International Corporate Bank, which marked the first of a series of acquisitions that would strengthen UnionBank's capabilities to deliver banking services tailored to the unique needs of Filipino customers.

UnionBank rolls out “Bank on Wheels” in Cebu to help typhoon-affected customers

In a bid to aid the victims of Typhoon Odette in their journey toward recovery, Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) recently deployed its "Bank on Wheels" (BOW) mobile banking facility in Cebu, to provide customers with easy access to much needed basic financial services.

BOW is UnionBank's 5G-capable banking kiosk in a van, designed to bring the Bank's trailblazing technology and innovation directly to its customers. It is a mobile version of its first-in-industry fully digital banking branch, The ARK, allowing customers to experience the features of the said branch potentially anywhere in the country.

Cebu residents were able to use the automatic teller machine (ATM) inside the kiosk that enabled them (UnionBank cardholders) to do balance inquiry, withdrawal, funds transfer, and bills payment transactions. Non-UnionBank cardholders were able make balance inquiry and withdraw cash.

With the cash recycler machine (CRM) also inside the kiosk, the Cebuano UnionBank customers were in addition to the transactions mentioned earlier, were able to do card-less withdrawal as well as cash deposit for both carded and card-less transactions. Non-UnionBank cardholders, on the other hand, were able to do balance inquiries and cash withdrawals.

Sustainability requires diversity, people-profit balance, says UnionBank’s transformative leader

As companies commit to sustainability, diversity and balance are among the most important focus areas that they must prioritize. This was highlighted by UnionBank during the recently concluded CBRE Connect Series’ Perspective in Leadership Webinar: Navigating through Challenges & Uncertainty.

Panelist Henry R. Aguda, UnionBank Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Operations Officer, and Chief Transformation Officer, shared insights on the challenges and rewards of leadership in a fast-growing industry; and the significance of innovation, reinvention, and resilience amid crises.

Aguda related that for UnionBank, digital transformation is not an end goal, but more of a means for people within the organization to be able to connect with each other, and ultimately, with the Bank's customers and stakeholders. More so, the Bank considers diversity as key to establishing a stronger connection, over and above being a necessary component of its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts.

"When you talk about connection, it's all about people. UnionBank has been known as a digital bank but actually, we're more of a people organization, and diversity is big on our agenda. It's something that we feel is also a key part of ESG. But beyond ESG, we believe in diversity in an organization."

Priority for AI implementation should be trust, not regulation – UnionBank data science, AI expert

Dr. David Hardoon, UnionBank Senior Adviser for Data & Artificial Intelligence, was recently invited to discuss his views on data science and artificial intelligence (AI) at an EFMA Sustainability & Regulation Community Best Practice Forum. 

The Data & AI expert believes that “regulating AI is the wrong goalpost,” arguing that the objective must be safety first and equality, promoting trust in the technology. Adding that there are safety nets to mitigate the risks associated with it. 

"Data, and to an extent, the AI as a mechanism and tool which manifests possibilities out of data, is an onion,” Hardoon said. "And what you find with this onion is that it's not just about data. It's not just about application. It's not just about consumer engagement. It's also about history. It's also about our understanding of our own current behavior. It's essentially opening up an immense view that potentially, previously, we were completely unaware of.”

Dr. Hardoon explains that AI may broken down to at least three buckets. First is data, which may be historically good or bad as it is a genuine representation of issues or errors that happened in the past or may happen moving forward. Then there is the AI system itself, specifically the approach of extracting information from the available data. And finally, there is the operationalization of the information that comes out.

EastWest fully vaccinates employees as it concludes FilVax program

EastWest’s FilVax organizing team pose for a group shot after a busy day at the FilVax vaccination supersite in Festival Mall, Alabang.

EastWest employees get their second dose of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

EastWest announces that it has successfully vaccinated its employees, consultants, and third-party hires, as well as non-affiliated individuals, as it completes its FilVax vaccination program this month.

The FilVax vaccination program, a joint initiative by EastWest and parent company Filinvest Development Corporation saw regional legs established in various areas in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, starting with the Filinvest Mega Vaccination Center at the Festival Mall in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

Meet Today's Agents Of Change

Students hacked their way into helping Filipinos live healthier, longer, better lives  with AIA Life Hackers 2021!

Almost 1,200 students all over the country recently came together virtually to help AIA Philippines explore new ideas on how to make Filipinos live healthier, longer, and better lives through AIA Life Hackers 2021.

Now on its third year, Life Hackers is a virtual hackfest aimed to drive the company’s relevance in young people’s lives and create meaningful connections with them. In turn, the youth are empowered to become agents of change through their proposed creative and innovative solutions which will improve the lives of many Filipinos through life insurance. 

Undergraduate college students from nearly 30 schools in the Philippines signed up and joined the competition. Each were tasked to submit a proposal under three categories: Technology or Data Solution, Marketing Solution, or Product/Service solutions. 

PSBank helps provide a brighter future to underprivileged children through its CSR partners

Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) renews support for the welfare of visually impaired, indigent and special children through the Bank’s annual donation to its corporate social responsibility (CSR) partners -- World Vision, Chosen Children Village Foundation, Inc. (CCVFI), and Resources for the Blind, Inc. (RBI).

PSBank donated a total of PhP300,000 to aid these three child-friendly organizations in providing shelter, basic necessities, education, and other special needs for the underprivileged children under their care.

World Vision commits in using the financial assistance to continue their programs for the welfare of underserved Filipino families. The organization spearheads community development initiatives and helps parents find a source of livelihood to better support their kids. They also provide emergency assistance to those affected by natural disasters.

UnionBank TECH LEAD: Building high-tech and high-touch talents

Multi-awarded Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) has expanded its graduate program, L.E.A.D. (Leader Executive Accelerated Development) by introducing TechLEAD – a program focused on developing technical talent to become leaders of tomorrow. 

The Bank’s initial LEAD Program, established in 2009, is a fast-track and accelerated curriculum designed to provide its management trainees or LEADs with a 6 to 7-year training and job experiences. The aim is to prepare and enable the individuals to contribute to UnionBank’s and their respective career goals. The course also equips the LEADs for the next significant step-up in the organization. 

The LEADs undergo a 24-month rotation within a specialization area to immerse them to end-to-end processes, i.e., front, middle, and back office to hone the trainees’ people-leading and people-managing skills.