JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and PayPal—what do these financial giants all have in common?
They all call the Philippines home when it comes to managing their Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) requirements, making the country one of the world’s leading outsourcing destinations for financial services and fintech companies.
Globally, the Philippines rank as the world’s second-largest BPO destination, and it’s easy to see why. Filipinos are outstandingly proficient when it comes to the English language; in fact, the country is the third-largest English-speaking nation in the world, with a culture that has a strong affinity with the West and especially the US. Business processes such as finance and accounting are also patterned after the US, making Philippine operations easier for foreign companies. The country also boasts a large pool of highly qualified and skilled agents, low labor costs (60% lower than the US), and excellent infrastructure.
“Mix all those factors in with the country’s 20-plus years of BPO experience, especially for banks, and you have a market that’s perfectly equipped to provide high-quality services to global financial institutions,” says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning BPO in the Philippines that specializes in customer experience management and back-office outsourcing solutions for fintech clients.
“The Philippine BPO industry has experienced exponential growth over the last two decades. Starting with fewer than 20 BPO/ITES companies back in 2000, the industry has quickly grown and now has over 800 providers competing for business,” Ellspermann says. “The industry now employs more than 1.2 million Filipinos and generates over US$26 billion in annual revenues. And of the entire BPO workforce, approximately 10%, provide BPO services for banks and fintech companies,” he adds.
Such BPO services in the Philippines include, but are not limited to, customer experience management, disputes and chargebacks, fraud mitigation and investigation, manual identity verification, negative balance management, and regulatory remediation.
These services require highly specialized and trained teams that are familiar will all compliance and data security aspects—something that PITON-Global offers and takes pride in. The company has managed to establish itself as a leading BPO in the Philippines and has partnered with seven fintech companies in the US, UK, Singapore, and Australia.
Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Ellspermann is confident that the BPO industry in the Philippines will rebound—especially the support for the financial services and fintech sectors, given that more people are starting to discover the convenience of electronic wallets and cashless transactions.
“The Philippines is the world’s leading BPO destination for financial services and fintech companies. BPOs in the country are here to stay, especially during challenging economic times like these when clients need to find ways to lower their costs, improve operating efficiencies, and enhance the customer experience,” Ellspermann says. “There’s really no better way to achieve these business objectives than by outsourcing BPO requirements to the Philippines. By migrating front and back-office processes to us here in the Philippines, our clients typically achieve cost savings of at least 40-50%.”