UnionBank of the Philippines (UnionBank) is widely known as one of the country’s earliest adopters of digital banking. Its long-running partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) has helped the bank build a more modern, inclusive customer experience focusing on technology and innovation.
“UnionBank started its journey with AWS several years ago, and the relationship has consistently centered on modernization and data transformation,” said Precious Lim, country manager for the Philippines at AWS.
The partnership began nine years ago, when UnionBank introduced digital account opening as part of its financial inclusion goals. Lim explained that the early years focused on cloud migration, updating legacy systems, and improving the bank’s data capabilities through third-party platforms.
“We realized early on that everything really starts with getting people on board,” said Dennis Omila, chief transformation officer of UnionBank, in an interview with Back End News at AWS re:Invent 2025 in Las Vegas. “When we launched digital account opening, that became the trigger for us because we knew the real proof is in having actual clients.”
Moving key systems to the AWS cloud enabled UnionBank to onboard millions of users and support rapid growth. The bank now serves 18 million customers, the second highest among Philippine banks. Cloud scalability also allowed UnionBank to roll out digital-first services, such as mobile check deposits, which previously depended heavily on branch and ATM capacity.
As its user base grew, UnionBank reviewed its setup and saw the need for a more flexible environment. This led the bank to transition more operations to the cloud, allowing teams to work on upgrades without slowing down customer services. AWS’ professional services team guided the bank through the first stages of migration and provided training for its control units. UnionBank also introduced a knowledge-transfer process where its staff worked alongside AWS specialists to learn cloud operations firsthand.
When Ana Maria Aboitiz-Delgado assumed the role of president and CEO, the bank began preparing for what it calls the next stage of banking: leveraging data and artificial intelligence (AI). UnionBank’s strategy now focuses on becoming a bank where data and AI guide decisions, operations, and customer experiences.
With this direction in mind, and encouraged by its positive work with AWS, UnionBank adopted Amazon QuickSuite, becoming the first bank in the Philippines to leverage the generative AI (GenAI) features of Amazon Quick Suite. QuickSuite is an AI-powered digital workspace that helps organizations analyze their data, get insights, and automate work processes.
“QuickSuite allowed our business teams to have self-service analytics and actionable insights at their fingertips,” Omila said. “Instead of relying on others to extract data, they can now interact directly with dashboards, ask questions, and get instant GenAI-driven answers that help them make faster and more informed decisions than before.”
Omila shared that the bank now has AI capabilities running in production. UnionBank’s in-house models are deployed on AWS SageMaker, which supports the bank’s goal of moving toward model-driven operations across departments.
“The focus on redefining the experience, with AI as a key differentiator to uplift Filipinos’ lives and stay ahead as other banks adopt similar technologies, has been repeated many times as part of the vision-setting,” Omila said.
QuickSuite’s design aims to simplify work and speed up decision-making. Instead of relying on separate tools for dashboards, analytics, and automation, QuickSuite offers a unified workspace that uses AI to pull insights from different systems. This allows employees across the bank, and not just technical teams, to get the information they need quickly and independently.
UnionBank says its cloud and AI initiatives are strengthening its long-standing focus on financial inclusion. By moving more processes online and adopting tools that let its teams work faster, the bank has been able to reach more Filipinos, including those in areas where traditional banking services are limited.
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