Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) reinforced its role in shaping the country’s digital finance agenda as one of its senior executives joined high-level discussions at the Money20/20 Asia PH Summit, one of the region’s most influential fintech gatherings.
Lito Villanueva, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer of RCBC, represented the bank in two panel sessions that examined both the strategic direction of financial services in Asia-Pacific and the operational realities of expanding access in underserved communities.
In the opening panel that followed the keynote address, titled “Key Fintech Trends 2026 in the Philippines and the APAC Region: The Future of Money,” Villanueva took part in a forward-looking discussion that helped set the tone for the conference. The session examined how fintech, digital payments, and platform-based financial services are expected to evolve across the Philippines and the wider Asia-Pacific region. Anchored on the 2026 Fintech Trends Whitepaper, the exchange highlighted the interplay of technology, regulation, and collaboration in shaping the next phase of financial transformation. The session was moderated by Danny Levy of Money20/20 Asia.
The FinTech Alliance.Ph Founding Chairman also took part in another panel dubbed “Offline-First Fintech for Zero-Connectivity Environments,” which addressed one of the most persistent challenges to financial inclusion in emerging markets: limited or unreliable connectivity. The session examined practical approaches such as agent banking, branch-lite models, and hybrid digital-physical infrastructure designed to reach rural households, farmers, and micro-entrepreneurs. Drawing from the Philippine context, the discussion underscored the importance of designing financial systems that remain accessible even in low-infrastructure environments.
The panel brought together perspectives from the private sector and regulators, including Arianne Ferrer, External Affairs Director of Tala, and Melchor Plabasan, Senior Director of the Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The session was moderated by Namita Kinjawadekar, Content Lead of Money20/20 Asia.
RCBC’s participation at the Money20/20 Asia PH Summit reflects the bank’s broader focus on innovation-led growth anchored on inclusion and resilience. As digital finance continues to evolve across the region, the bank’s engagement in these discussions highlights its intent to contribute to policy-relevant, market-driven conversations that balance technological progress with broad-based access.
