Citystate Savings Bank taps Geniusto PHL for e-wallet

Partnership Citystate Savings Bank President Jaime Valentin L. Araneta (left) and Geniusto Philippines’s President Shane Hermans are seen at their partnership contract signing held at the Ascott Boardroom, Taguig City on Tuesday (February 27, 2024). CSBank intends to come up with its own e-wallet to better serve its clients and boost its digitalization efforts, with its partnership with Geniusto a vital part of that initiative.

Publicly listed Citystate Savings Bank (CSBank) will develop its e-wallet to better serve its clients and boost its digitalization efforts.

In an interview with BusinessMirror on Tuesday, CSBank President Jaime Araneta said the bank’s partnership with Geniusto Philippines Inc. will improve their services.

The partnership will enable CSBank to create its own e-wallet. Araneta said this is part of the bank’s plan to become a hybrid bank that occupies both physical and digital spaces.

“This digital banking, I think, will be the game changer for us. Because not only will it allow us to acquire new clients, both the under-banked or underserved, but the fee income potential is quite huge,” Araneta told this newspaper that is also part of the ALC Group of Companies.

Araneta said the bank can start operating this once it has secured the approval of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). CSBank is preparing the paperwork for the Electronic Payment and Financial Service (EPFS).

He said CSBank intends to apply for the EPFS license by mid-year. If, Araneta said, everything goes according to plan and the BSP approves the license, the bank may have a license for the e-wallet by the end of 2024.

“This digital banking, I think, will be the game changer for us. Because not only will it allow us to acquire new clients, both the under-banked or underserved, but the fee income potential is quite huge,” Araneta told this newspaper that is also part of the ALC Group of Companies.

Araneta said the bank can start operating this once it has secured the approval of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). CSBank is preparing the paperwork for the Electronic Payment and Financial Service (EPFS).

He said CSBank intends to apply for the EPFS license by mid-year. If, Araneta said, everything goes according to plan and the BSP approves the license, the bank may have a license for the e-wallet by the end of 2024.

“So, we have the basic requirements already now. We intend to go to the BSP to apply for that license by mid-year. And then the countdown will be something like six months. If all goes well, by the end of the year, we should have that,” he said.

The partnership with Geniusto also provides the multi-tenant approach. As such, Araneta said this opens digital opportunities for the other members of the ALC Group of Companies.

This, he said, can realize the vision of ALC Group Chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon to improve the synergy within the group. Through digitalization, Araneta said, CSBank will be able to help work toward this goal.

Through this synergy, Araneta said, it will also expand the reach of CSBank. Currently, the bank has a branch in Cebu but it has no presence in Mindanao.

“When I joined the bank three and a half years ago, that was one of the things I really wanted to bring to the table, how we can really synergize within the group,” Araneta said.

“Going forward, we will be able to provide wallets for each of the companies, so that they can, in fact, do their own digital transactions, receiving, making payments, and they can even brand it accordingly,” he added.

Geniusto is originally from the United Kingdom but its head office is in Perth, Australia. It has been in operation for 24 years and has 19 Foreign Financial Institutions as Global clients.

Their products include GO Digital Banking Suite, GO Payments Orchestration, GO Rules Engines, GO Ledger, GO Engage, GO Mobile Platform, GO Merchant, and GO Internet Platform.