LEILA C. MARTIN
President and CEO, Overseas Filipino Bank
“I always viewed challenges as opportunities for growth and to create something meaningful that will help bring change to people’s lives.”
With the lack of economic opportunities in the Philippines, many Filipinos seek greener pastures abroad as land-based and sea-based workers.
The Philippine Statistics Authority estimated the number of overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) in 2021 at 1.83 million, higher than the 1.77 million in 2020. They are hailed as the nation’s new heroes, or bagong bayani, as their remittances help keep the country’s economy afloat. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said OFWs sent home $84 billion in September, with a 3.8-percent year-on-year growth.
Leila Martin’s job is to ensure that their hard-earned money is safely and conveniently remitted to the families that they left behind.
“We launched OFBank as a digital-only, first branchless government bank in the Philippines on June 29, 2020 at the height of the pandemic. By leveraging on digital solutions, OFBank was able to deliver uninterrupted essential services to OFWs and their families,” says Martin, who is the president and chief executive officer of Overseas Filipino Bank, or OFBank.
“Despite the challenges experienced by OFWs during the Covid-19 pandemic, they continued to make significant contributions in supporting the economy amid the global economic crisis,” she says. “It was only fitting that we supported them in achieving their financial goals for themselves and for their loved ones here at home, through a safe, convenient and secure platform for their banking transactions.”
Seamless savings and investments
In the 1970s up to the mid-1980s, overseas workers would depend on their home-bound colleagues to bring their hard-earned money home. They would put their cash inside an envelope or small package of padala and entrust this to a kababayan who is heading home. This method is not fail-proof, and there are stories of the money never reaching its intended recipients.
OH LEILA! Leila Martin with her crew at OFBank (top) and (bottom) as a devoted wife and mother of two. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
OFBank serves the need for reliable and secure financial and investment products and services that are responsive to the diverse requirements of migrant Filipinos and their families. Primarily, the OFBank Mobile Banking App allows customers to perform essential banking transactions safely and conveniently through their own smartphones, such as opening an OFBank account, sending money directly to their families, investing in government securities and settling their bills to private and government merchants.
OFBank offers three main digital products and services. It has a Digital Onboarding System with Artificial Intelligence, or DOBS-AI, that facilitates real-time account opening via the OFBank’s Mobile Banking Application on iPhone and Android devices. There are types of savings accounts, a Visa debit card for overseas Filipinos and OFWs, Visa debit card for beneficiaries and regular debit card for beneficiaries below 18 years old.
“DOBS-AI allows overseas Filipinos, OFWs and their beneficiaries to submit all necessary requirements online and securely, and conveniently open an account. It employs image recognition technology that allows clients to capture and upload their facial image and the front of their valid IDs,” Martin says.
OFBank also offers fund transfers and bills payment services for both government and private merchants via its mobile banking app.
“Currently, we have over 100 available merchants, and we have started to expand the list of available government merchants to include important billers relevant to overseas Filipinos and ease the transmittal of their contributions, such as the Social Security System; the Home Development Mutual Fund, or Pag-IBIG Fund; and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., or PhilHealth,” Martin expounds.
The app also allows overseas Filipinos to directly invest in the Philippines through the purchase of government securities in as little as five minutes or less. These investment opportunities include the retail treasury bonds and Premyo bonds offered by the Bureau of the Treasury, as well as their most recent offering, the retail dollar bonds.
OFBank’s client base has already grown to over 100,000 OFWs and beneficiaries from a total of 123 countries and territories all over the world.
“With limited in-person transactions, especially at that time, we saw firsthand the shift of customers to digital banking channels, thus highlighting the convenience of OFBank’s products and services. In fact, we have seen a 114.4-percent growth in terms of accounts opened by end-2021,” Martin shares.
To reach their clients, they launched a financial literacy campaign, facilitating webinars for overseas Filipinos and OFWs to introduce their digital offerings. These were held in partnership with LandBank and other partners, such as the Department of Trade and Industry, Philippine Embassies and Consulates, POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration), OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration), OFW groups and Filipino community groups worldwide.
Meaningful mission
Despite having a degree in Mass Communications from the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, she landed her very first job at the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank).
“Admittedly, I was hesitant to apply at first because my degree was unrelated to the industry. Thankfully, I was surrounded by supportive people, especially my father, who encouraged me to pursue the career opportunity and who financed my post-graduate studies. It was also fortunate for me that LandBank has an extensive training program which allowed me to complete courses in Japan and New Zealand.”
She rose from the ranks, starting as a bank clerk, then holding various positions in the bank’s agrarian sector, lending sector and branch banking sector until she became a senior vice president responsible for managing LandBank’s North NCR Branches Group.
“During my stay in LandBank, I spearheaded projects aimed at enhancing and developing LandBank’s internet banking facilities, which helped me build my expertise in fintech (financial technology). With decades of hard work and banking experience, I was later entrusted to lead in the establishment of a digital bank which progressed to what is now the first digital bank in the country, OFBank.”
She says that she did not exactly imagine a career in the banking and finance industry, much less lead a digital bank.
“But from an early age, I always viewed challenges as opportunities for growth and to create something meaningful that will help bring change to people’s lives. With transport and mobility restrictions around the globe due to the pandemic, we were able to provide them with a secure and safe way of sending back money to their families here in the Philippines without the need to physically go to remittance centers.”
As the president and chief executive officer of OFBank, she still practices the same growth mindset, with a deeper focus on developing digital banking solutions that will address the diverse banking needs of OFWs and their families.
“This is what truly drives OFBank to be at the forefront of digital financial transformation in the Philippines — the privilege to improve the lives of our clients through convenient, reliable and secure products and services.”
