- GoTyme Bank reaches the 2-million customer milestone in 14 months since the start of its commercial operations. It attributes this achievement to its phygital model that has allowed it to provide preferred banking to all Filipinos.
- It is on track toward profitability, having prioritized innovation and customer acquisition in its first year of operations. Its use of technology as a tool for inclusion and accessibility has streamlined processes and products to cater to all its customers, including small entrepreneurs.
- GoTyme is equally heavily invested in AI and humans. It promises to continue as a human digital bank.
Digital bank GoTyme Bank, a joint venture between the Gokongwei group of companies and multicountry digital banking group Tyme, outstrips the 2-million customer milestone on December 22, beating its target for the end of 2023. Driving its success is its award-winning phygital model that has allowed it to deliver preferred banking services to all Filipinos.
Nate Clarke, GoTyme Bank president and CEO, says, “In merely 14 months since the start of our commercial operations, we have reached 2 million customers. The better news is that this growth is translating into deep adoption: GoTyme ranks 7th among local banks in monthly Instapay volume [per Bancnet], 7th in active debit cards [per Euromonitor], and 5th in finance apps [per data.ai]. Further, we recently surpassed P10 billion in outstanding deposits.”
GoTyme Bank is consistently ranked in the top 5 finance apps in both Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the country by data.ai, a leader in mobile market data app analytics and solutions.
Clarke credits GoTyme Bank’s sustained growth to its phygital model that combines a well-established digital system with physical and human banking, seamlessly integrating the convenience of digital technology with human-led interactions. This has allowed GoTyme to extend preferred banking services to every Filipino, and not just the top 5% of the population.
Its 462 kiosks, strategically placed in Robinsons retail outlets and other locations all over the country, are supported by a team of 1,400 bank ambassadors (BAs). Together, these kiosks and BAs contribute significantly to two-thirds of GoTyme’s customer acquisition.
This puts GoTyme Bank on track toward profitability, having prioritized innovation and customer acquisition in its first year of operations. Clarke is happy to share that GoTyme Bank “is ahead of plan in financial and operational metrics.” He is confident that GoTyme will hit its profitability target in 2025, three years after its commercial launch. “Our focus on providing preferred banking to all Filipinos through our phygital model will pave the way to unlocking the Filipino financial potential,” he says.
GoTyme’s phygital model has reaped industry recognition, winning several awards in 2023. From the Bank Marketing Awards 2023 of the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines, GoTyme racked up the Best Customer-Centric Program and Best Financial Inclusion Program. The KMC Startup Awards 2023, on the other hand, bestowed on GoTyme the Tech Innovator Gold Award and Customer Excellence Bronze Award.
Further, GoTyme’s app and kiosk, which are important components of the phygital model, won interface and user experience design awards from the Red Dot Design Awards 2023 and UX Design Awards 2023, both of which are internationally distinguished awards.
Inclusivity and accessibility
GoTyme’s emphasis on human interaction and support ensures that customers feel understood and that their needs, and even desires, are acknowledged and met. Its use of technology as a tool for inclusion and accessibility streamlines processes and products to cater to all its customers, including small entrepreneurs.
It recently introduced its Flexible Financing product for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in partnership with payment gateway PayMongo. This product is designed to ease the documentation pain points MSMEs usually encounter when applying for traditional credit products in the market. MSME applicants to GoTyme’s product are approved in real time, after a 3-step, 3-minute application. The loan funds are disbursed within 1 business day.
Says Clarke: “The more the MSME does business with us or our partners, the bigger the credit that will be made available to them.”
The Flexible Financing repayment scheme also follows the business performance of the MSMEs, as it is pegged at a percentage of the MSME’s business revenue. If the MSME is experiencing a slower month in business performance, GoTyme collects less in repayments from the MSME customer.
“MSMEs can now get credit instantly when they need it, with us standing shoulder to shoulder with the MSME business, and the Flexible Financing product, as a supportive banking partner,” Clarke adds.
Investing in tech and humans
GoTyme is equally heavily invested in its human workforce and its tech capabilities like artificial intelligence (AI). AI automates tasks like research, lead generation, and fraud detection, among other things, toward improved efficiency.
Clarke notes, “For improving customer service, AI capabilities allow us to analyze our customers for us to predict their needs and behaviors. For enhancing cybersecurity, AI can identify shadow data, monitor irregularities in data access, and sound alerts to security threats. At heart, however, our interactions remain human to human.”
GoTyme has also adopted cutting-edge technology that it keeps upgrading to strengthen cybersecurity controls. It employs high levels of encryption throughout its platform and conducts automated security checking of its code with a tool for analyzing software for bugs and vulnerabilities. It works with NICE Actimize, the leading global provider of financial crime, risk, and compliance solutions, while continually educating its customers on the secure use of digital banking platforms and encouraging them to set up features such as multifactor authentication, SMS or email alerts, and fraud monitoring.
With AI dominating the current conversation, data-driven AI capabilities allow GoTyme Bank to analyze customer needs at a granular level, putting it in a better position to predict human needs and behaviors more accurately.
“This way, we get to know more what our customers need and what they like,” says Albert Tinio, GoTyme Bank co-CEO. “In turn, this leads us to develop improved services or products.”
He also makes a case for heavily investing in humans. “We believe in human interactions, in making connections, in building relationships, in making our customers feel that they are heard, that they are understood, and that their concerns and issues will have solutions,” says Tinio. “And this is because we empathize. We feel them—it’s all about the emotional connection and trust in the end, especially for highly sociable Filipinos.”
It is also no secret that GoTyme BAs helped the bank achieve rapid market penetration: Never has account opening been so simple and highly personal than with GoTyme’s onboarding system in the friendliest of places—Robinsons malls and supermarkets.
“Opening a GoTyme account is not an intimidating experience,” Tinio says. “There is zero discrimination in our operations. This is also the reason we invest in personal bankers (PBs) so that when customers have inquiries or issues, they will not be speaking with bots but with real people with real solutions.”
GoTyme Bank’s phygital business model puts a premium on access in all aspects of its operations. It has deployed a high-tech, high-touch retail-integrated distribution model powered by GoTyme’s smart mobile apps. Physical onboarding kiosks staffed by BAs enable five-minute account opening and real-time physical card issuing, while cash deposits and withdrawals are widely available through store cashiers. By ensuring that a helpful human is always at the end of the line, GoTyme Bank is committed to constantly improve on its customer service, such that quick, efficient, and helpful responses become a habit among its BAs and PBs.
GoTyme has also made sending money easy and affordable. Customers can use their app to send funds from their GoTyme account to any bank or e-wallet for free, three times a week. Deposits and withdrawals are also always free at any Robinsons or Gokongwei retail counter.
At the same time, GoTyme enhances the customers’ shopping experience, with its users earning points everywhere they shop. As an added benefit, customers earn 3 times the points whenever they pay with their GoTyme Bank Visa debit card within the Gokongwei retail ecosystem. GoTyme has also introduced a way to redeem these rewards points either as direct merchandise or as cash.
The bank has also simplified savings, as it offers the highest base interest rate of 5% per annum. Every GoTyme savings account holder can enjoy this interest rate, with no mission to complete and no minimum balance to maintain. It has also introduced savings tools like Save the Change and Auto-Save to help instill the habit of saving.
“We promise that we will continue to be your human digital bank,” says Tinio. “As we get to know more of your needs and wants, we press on with offering you secure, accessible, affordable and innovative products and preferred banking experience to help you unlock your financial potential.”