Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), in partnership with instant payment infrastructure service provider Higala, has onboarded eight rural banks to SynerFi, an open payments platform designed to help smaller financial institutions join the InstaPay network.
The partnership, which also includes development firm Chemonics, aims to increase InstaPay penetration from 5% to 20% within two years. The initiative supports the goal of promoting financial inclusion, especially in underserved communities.
“Rural banks in microfinance institutions are not at the periphery of our financial system,” said Lito Villanueva, EVP and chief innovation and inclusion officer of RCBC. “They are the pulse of countryside development, the first mile of inclusion and often the only bridge between marginalized communities and meaningful economic participation.”
SynerFi offers rural banks access to a digital banking suite through Higala’s Inclusive Instant Payment System. Features include a white-label mobile banking app with digital onboarding, CASA and payment services, and a teller web application.
“The ability for our community banks, our rural banks, our institutional banks, to offer efficiency in other financial services that they offer… having access to digitized payment systems allowed the cost to service to be lower,” said Winston Damarillo, president and CEO of Higala. “You don’t have to have an agent to disperse money physically in cash. You can do that now digitally in instant payments.”
RCBC developed the foundation of the SynerFi platform, lending its infrastructure, such as cybersecurity, treasury, and technical capabilities, to allow participating banks to operate as “tenant banks.”
“Building this system was the difficult part, requiring two to three months of intense collaboration,” Damarillo said.
Now that the system is in place, onboarding new banks is expected to take only two to three weeks. Rural banks joining the network will be equipped with digital tools while maintaining their physical branches to serve local communities.
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