That push recently earned RCBC recognition as Visa’s Security Champion for the Philippines for best-in-market fraud mitigation and risk performance — its second consecutive year receiving the award.
Awarded during Visa’s annual Risk Forum, the Security Champion Award recognizes the best-performing local bank across four core security dimensions: issuing fraud rates, issuer authentication approval rates for online transactions, acquirer fraud rates, and fraud mitigation program implementation.
Rising digital risks
The recognition comes as the rapid digitization of payments expands both opportunity and exposure. Visa said scams have evolved beyond traditional SMS schemes into more complex phishing operations and account takeover attempts.
With scams shifting tactics, Visa has ramped up its Visa Scam Disruption (VSD) practice, blocking more than US$1 billion in attempted scams and dismantling over 25,000 scam-linked merchants.
Over the past five years, the global payments firm has invested US$13 billion to strengthen fraud prevention and network security.
“While protecting Filipinos from fraud has always been a top priority for Visa, we believe that strengthening payments security is a shared responsibility among all industry stakeholders. By working with banks and other partners, Visa’s risk solutions help to protect banks’ customers and consumers across the Philippines,” shared Jeffrey Navarro, Visa Philippines country manager, in a statement.
“This award exemplifies how RCBC has made the management and mitigation of risk as a differentiator in their business strategy and underscores the depth of our shared commitment towards making payments more seamless and secure in the Philippines,” Navarro said.
Security as strategy
For RCBC, fraud prevention is increasingly intertwined with digital expansion.
“The rapid digitization of payments has also inevitably increased the sophistication of the threats we need to defend against,” Reggie Cariaso, RCBC president and CEO added.
“RCBC is staying ahead of these risks with our robust risk management infrastructure and world-class security protocols through our partnership with Visa. These must go hand in hand with our innovations in order to foster customer trust in the digital payments ecosystem.”
RCBC was among the first issuers in the Philippines to use secure, tokenized credentials when Visa launched Google Wallet and Google Pay locally last year. Through a recent partnership, the bank will also issue Visa debit cards, expanding access to more secure digital payment options.
As digital transactions deepen nationwide, the competitive edge may increasingly belong to institutions that treat security not as compliance — but as product innovation. —Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
