CIMB Philippines eyes 10M customers, double balance sheet in next three years

Digital-only commercial bank CIMB Philippines is targeting to grow its customer base to 10 million and double its balance sheet in the next three years, as the lender on Wednesday said it is set to partner with more firms and roll out additional products in the near term.

According to CIMB Philippines chief business and strategy officer Ankur Sehgal, the firm is looking to increase its customer base by up to 1.5 million this year and continue its growth trajectory to its “conservative” target of 10 million after hitting 7.5 million at the end of 2023.

“In the next three years, we are targeting to cross more than 10 million customers, so that’s gonna be our official target in the next three years, but of course, internally, we would definitely, we may end up higher,” he told reporters in Taguig City.

Out of CIMB’s 7.5 million clients, some 3 million of them have availed of credit services — a number that the bank seeks to sustain double-digit growth in its loans.

“In terms of projection, we are targeting a yearly growth of almost 40%, so we are targeting to double our balance sheet in the next three years,” Sehgal said, but declined to provide figures as he said these were still under audit.

“We also have a couple more big partners lined up, is coming up, we’ll share with you officially soon in the next couple of months. With those new partners coming on board, we are expecting our lending growth to be doubling down in the next few years,” he added.

The company’s lending services are currently available through two revolving credit lines — GCredit and Revi Credit, and two loan products including personal loans and its SPayLater buy now pay later partnership with Shopee.

In terms of deposits, Sehgal said CIMB expects a 25% annual growth as more players have entered the Philippine market.

At present, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has only allowed six digital banks to operate in the Philippines — GoTyme Bank Corp., Maya Bank Inc., Overseas Filipino Bank Inc., Tonik Digital Bank Inc., UnionDigital Bank Inc., and UNObank Inc.

The central bank in 2021 said it would limit the country’s digital bank licenses to six, as the seventh supposed slot failed to be awarded due to the failure to submit complete documentation.

Digital banks are defined as banks that offer financial products and services that are processed end-to-end through a digital platform and/or electronic channels with no physical branches.??

“What digital banks can offer, we can offer with the same banking license and more, so that it doesn’t restrict us,” Sehgal responded, when asked if CIMB would pursue the seventh slot.

Moving forward, Sehgal said CIMB expects policy rates to go down in the next three to six months, with the BSP expected to ease rates by at least 50 basis points this year.

The central bank has already raised key policy rates by 450 basis points since May 2022, in a bid to tame inflation. The benchmark target reverse repurchase (RRP) rate is currently at a 16-year high of 6.5%.—AOL, GMA Integrated News