The credit card arm of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) is banking on big data analytics to drive its business despite the Covid-19 pandemic. During the recently held TransUnion Philippines' Big Data Summit, RCBC Bankard President and CEO Arniel Vincent Ong said that by using data analysis, the bank could grow its plastic money business and their spending in a more sustainable manner.

He said big data analytics helped the bank realize that 'stopping lending during a crisis is not the answer. The question is how to be more intelligent with it.' The approach the business takes is risk-based. The card issuer cut the portfolio into segments and identified areas for growth along with areas for risk mitigation. 'We identified which segments need more help and which segments are resilient, and then we executed our risk-based actions,' Ong added.