TransUnion Philippines partners with Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines

Information solutions provider TransUnion and the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) announced their milestone partnership during RBAP’s 66^th Annual National convention held in Baguio City. With over 400 members from different regions across the Philippines, the unified decision of rural banks through RBAP to contribute information to consumer credit files will enable higher levels of financial inclusion, as well as help strengthen the banking system and act as a driver for economic growth.

For years, rural banks have served as the main access point for basic financial services for a large number of Filipinos, providing deposit and credit facilities to communities in which they operate. The data-sharing partnership with TransUnion, which will see a greater number of lenders contributing information to consumer credit reports, is expected to help RBAP members further enhance their consumer offering.

With credit information sharing including positive information on payments that Filipinos are successfully maintaining, consumers will potentially have access to new or additional loans as rural banks become better able to manage risk and assess a consumer’s creditworthiness.

“Our partnership with TransUnion will help facilitate an increase in business coming into rural banks. By using data-based, analytics-driven solutions, we expect the volume of lending to grow as the decision-making process becomes more fluid. Ultimately, this will have a positive impact on the bottom line of each member rural bank. For RBAP, the partnership continues to make true the promise that the Association made to its members ─ Walang iwanan (No one is left behind.),” said former RBAP President Dr. Armando Bonifacio.

“The availability of accurate and more extensive credit information is an important catalyst to an efficient credit ecosystem which can help fuel and support further economic growth. Providing rural banks with a more complete picture of a person’s creditworthiness helps open up more financial possibilities, giving consumers access to credit that might have been inaccessible to them before this partnership,” said TransUnion Philippines President and CEO Pia Arellano.

“When lenders utilize more complete credit information, it enables them to make more informed lending decisions – benefitting them and the consumers they serve. TransUnion prides itself on using ‘Information for Good’ and this new partnership has the potential to benefit consumers, businesses, and the Philippine economy as a whole.”

The collaboration will open up the possibility of new lines of credit for much-needed investment and a wealth of other opportunities. TransUnion’s comprehensive suite of solutions and its commitment to data quality standards will also help protect Filipinos from fraud by helping validate and check genuine applications for new financial products.

“Rural banks are, by design, champions of financial inclusion. Our partnership with RBAP is a huge milestone as it will only strengthen that mandate and allow rural bankers to address modern challenges through the power of information. In the end, all of it supports our own efforts at expanding Filipinos’ access to credit and making sure that economic growth is inclusive,” continued Arellano.

RBAP was founded in 1955 to promote the general welfare and safeguard the interests of rural bankers, as well as study and devise ways and means of making rural bank facilities more responsive to the needs of people in rural areas. Since then, it has been instrumental in promoting comprehensive rural development and expanding productivity to raise the quality of life, especially of the underprivileged.

A leading global risk and information solutions provider, TransUnion works on a data-sharing model and provides consumer reports, risk scores, analytical services, and decisioning capabilities exclusively to member businesses. These members embed TransUnion’s solutions into their own process workflows to improve their capabilities in areas like customer acquisition, assessment of consumers’ ability to pay for services, debt collection, consumer identity verification, and investigation into potential fraud.

TransUnion Philippines was incorporated in 2011 by the country’s five biggest credit card issuers ─ BDO, BPI, Metrobank, Citibank, and HSBC. It is backed by a sophisticated technology infrastructure that helps ensure data security and compliance with privacy laws. For more information about TransUnion Philippines and its suite of solutions, visit the website https://www.transunion.ph