Landbank onboards 3.8M unbanked national ID registrants

State-run lender Land Bank of the Philippines said Friday it has boosted its efforts to onboard unbanked Filipinos in the formal banking system in support of the national government’s financial inclusion agenda.

In a statement, Landbank said it has onboarded a total of 3,794,882 unbanked National ID registrants for transaction accounts as of May 31, 2021.

Of the said number of onboarded individuals, 1,071,177 have already received their Landbank Agent Banking Cards (ABCs), the lender said.

The cards, which were provided free-of-charge and with no initial deposit requirement, form part of the Landbank’s ongoing partnership with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to co-locate in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) rollouts nationwide and provide unbanked registrants with their own transaction accounts.

The Landbank ABCs are given to unbanked PhilSys registrants through Landbank account opening booths at designated co-location areas.

As of end-May 2021, the lender has co-located in more than 850 PhilSys registration centers in 32 pilot provinces nationwide.

It said that account holders can use the Landbank ABCs to cash-in, cash-out, and transfer funds at any Landbank branch or agent banking partner.

They can also withdraw cash at Mastercard-accepting ATMs, perform cashless transactions, shop online, and receive government subsidies digitally.

In the future, the state lender said Landbank ABCs may be used as contactless cards to pay fares in public transport modes under the Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) project of the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

“Financial inclusion provides the unbanked opportunities to save, invest, and avail of affordable credit, leading towards their financial independence,” Landbank said.

“By banking the unbanked, Landbank enables government cash grants and pensions to be credited directly into their accounts through cashless fund transfers,” it added.—LDF, GMA News