THE East West Banking Corp. is expan6ding further into the small and medium enterprise banking space with the launch of a new debit card geared toward into the sector, the Gotianun-led lender’s chief executive officer announced.
Jerry G. Ngo said during the launch last Tuesday that the country’s first debit card for business will give owners tools to run their trade.
The card, called ‘BizAcess Visa Debit,’ gives customers a checking account with minimum maintaining balance of P25,000. It will give them access to the bank’s platform that will let them view balances, monitor transactions, pay suppliers and manage cash flow.
The debit card includes a travel accident insurance, among other perks.
‘We’ve already realized that a lot of our customers are using our services for their own. Our personal loan business is being used for me-funding, a lot of our business banking clients are already SMEs. What this gives us lang right now is really a step-up offering,’ Ngo said.
He said there is no exact data on how SMEs manage their funds as the owners’ personal money is mixed into the business.
‘Right now, we don’t have a clear view because apparently we’re really not something that’s being packed. Our consumer portfolio is now 84 percent of our total book. And what we’re hoping to do is through this initiative, through this new set of product services and value proposition is to formalize that (funds used for SME’s enterprise,’ Ngo said.
He said the decision to go deeper into the SME segment is that most of the country’s enterprise composed of these businesses and only 0.5 percent came from large corporate conglomerates and multinationals combined.
‘But more importantly also, a lot of the SMEs are also individuals themselves, and run their business as a family affair. So normally you would also tap into that,’ Ngo said.
He said many of the SMEs are failing, which is why the bank should support the,
‘But the fact is that the banks will only support if there is data. But we don’t know who are those that is scaling up as opposed to those who are just starting,’ he said.
The debit card is just a start, Ngo said, as the company is launching a lending product geared towards the SMEs.
‘Nothing beats having your own business. Longer term, the returns to capital is so much higher than returns to labor. I would know,’ said Ngo, who admitted he was once an entrepreneur for four years, before going into East West.