Smart partnerships will deliver AI-led, fully digital mobile banking convenience to customers

MANILA, March 13 (Bernama) -- CIMB Bank Berhad (“the Bank” or “CIMB”), through its branch that is being set up in the Philippines, CIMB Bank Philippines Inc., recently entered into partnership agreements with CIS Bayad Center Inc. (“Bayad Center”) and FINTQnologies Corp (“FINTQ”), both affiliates of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (“PLDT”) group of companies. This marks a major milestone in CIMB’s expansion into the Philippines, in preparation for the establishment of its operations in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Bayad Center is a pioneer and leader in the outsourced payment collection industry in the Philippines with more than 12,000 payment channels nationwide. Leveraging on their extensive network and broad range of services will help scale up CIMB’s reach to customers across the Philippines effectively. FINTQ is a local leader in providing digital financial solutions and interactions. Among the various aspects, the partnership with FINTQ will allow CIMB to leverage on the subscriber base and customer database of Lendr, one of FINTQ’s proprietary platforms.

Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Aziz, Group CEO of CIMB Group commented, “We are pleased that our relationship with PLDT has evolved into strong, strategic partnerships with its related companies. We are confident that by leveraging on these partners’ local strengths as well as CIMB’s extensive digital experience, we will be able to provide our customers in the Philippines with a seamless digital banking experience. CIMB is excited with the prospects that the Philippines market offers and we are also confident that our differentiated strategy based on digital and partnerships will bring a strong value proposition into the market.”

“We are excited to collaborate with CIMB in this fast-growing FinTech space. This is in line with our mission to collaborate with partners and develop mutually beneficial propositions. This is just the start of a long-term fruitful partnership with one of ASEAN’s largest banks,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman of PLDT and FINTQ.

The signing of the partnership agreements was attended by senior officials from all three parties including Samir Gupta (CEO, Group Consumer Banking, CIMB Group), Gurdip Singh Sidhu (Group Chief Strategy Officer, CIMB Group) and Vijay Manoharan (Senior Managing Director, Digital Banking and Decision Management, Group Consumer Banking, CIMB) from CIMB. The PLDT team, led by Manuel V. Pangilinan, also included Orlando B. Vea (President and CEO, FINTQ), Lito Villanueva (Managing Director, FINTQ), Manuel Lorenzo L. Tuason (President and CEO, Bayad Center), Francispito P. Quevedo (Senior Vice President and COO, Bayad Center), and Isryn Piah D.R. Beltran (Head, Strategic Innovations Office, Bayad Center).

About CIMB Group

CIMB Group is Malaysia’s second largest financial services provider and one of ASEAN’s leading universal banking groups. It offers consumer banking, investment banking, Islamic banking, asset management and insurance products and services. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the Group is now present in nine out of 10 ASEAN nations (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos). Beyond ASEAN, the Group has market presence in China, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Korea, the US and UK.

CIMB Group has the most extensive retail branch network in ASEAN of around 850 branches as at 31 December 2017. CIMB Group’s investment banking arm is also one of the largest Asia Pacific-based investment banks, offering amongst the most comprehensive research coverage of more than 700 stocks in the region.

CIMB Group operates its business through three main brand entities, CIMB Bank, CIMB Investment Bank and CIMB Islamic. CIMB Group is also the 92.5% shareholder of Bank CIMB Niaga in Indonesia, and 94.1% shareholder of CIMB Thai in Thailand.

CIMB Group is listed on Bursa Malaysia via CIMB Group Holdings Berhad. It had a market capitalisation of approximately RM 60.3 billion as at 31 December 2017. The Group has around 38,000 employees located in 15 countries.

Source : CIMB Group

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Name : Suria Zainal
Head
Group Corporate Communications 
Group CEO’s Office
CIMB Group Holdings Berhad
Tel : +603 - 2261 0638 
Email : suriawati.zainal@cimb.com

--BERNAMA