RCBC Credit Cards (previously RCBC Bankard ()) is one of the largest

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

issuers in the Philippines, issuing

VISA Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

, MasterCard, JCB, and UnionPay (CUP) credit cards. It also issued its own line of credit and

debit Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit en ...

cards in the 1990s. RCBC Credit Cards offers an installment conversion facility that allows cardholders to convert their retail purchases to installment including a 0% interest installment.

History

Bankard, Incorporated was organized by Philippine Commercial International Bank, or PCI Bank on December 4, 1981, as the Philippine Commercial Credit Card, Inc. (PCCCI) to operate a domestic credit card operation. It started full commercial operations in June 1982. PCCCI's affiliation with PCIBank gave it the distinction of being the first credit card in the Philippines issued by a commercial bank. In July 1992, PCCCI changed its name to Bankard, Inc. On June 20, 1991, PCIBank was granted a license by MasterCard International to issue credit cards in the Philippines accepted by the MasterCard network of affiliated banks and establishments worldwide. In 1994, PCIBank turned over the management and ownership of the MasterCard portfolio, both for the issuing and acquiring business, to Bankard, Inc. In March 1995, Bankard, Inc. was publicly listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange, becoming the first credit card company to be listed in the Philippines, and only the second to achieve this distinction in the Asia-Pacific region. Also in March 1995, Bankard, Inc. became the first credit card company to offer both dollar (PCIBank MasterCard) and peso (Bankard MasterCard) payment billing options. In May 1995, Visa International granted Bankard, Inc. the license to acquire merchant billings and to issue credit cards carrying the Visa brand. When PCI Bank merged with Equitable Bank to form

Equitable PCI Bank Equitable PCI Bank, Inc. () was one of the largest banks in the Philippines, being the third-largest bank in terms of assets. It was the largest bank before it was overtaken by Metrobank in 1995. It is the result of the merger of Equitable Bankin ...

, the new Equitable PCI chose to keep Equitable Bank's credit card arm, Equitable CardNetwork, rather than to incorporate Bankard into Equitable's credit card operations. In 2000, majority of Bankard was sold to the Yuchengco Group of Companies, owner of

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation The Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) () is one of the largest universal banks in the Philippines with total consolidated resources of Php 959 billion. It was established in 1960 as a development bank and is licensed by the Bangko Se ...

(RCBC). RCBC's credit card operations, RCBC Card, were subsequently merged into Bankard, forming the current company. Through RCBC Card, Bankard also started issuing JCB cards. Bankard was two-thirds owned by the Yuchengco Group of Companies and is an affiliate of RCBC. However, this was set to change after the Yuchengco Group of Companies accepted a buyout offer from

GE Consumer Finance GE Capital is the financial services division of General Electric. The company currently only runs one division, GE Energy Financial Services. It had provided additional services in the past; however, those units were sold between 2013 and 201 ...

for an undisclosed price, subject to stockholder approval. In the past, YGC had sought to nullify its acquisition on the grounds that it paid Equitable PCI Bank too much. In 2007, the company rebranded from Bankard to RCBC Bankard after the sale of the entire Bankard business to

(RCBC) was concluded in December 2006. GE Money failed to acquire Bankard from RCBC. On September 29, 2022, RCBC Bankard rebranded to RCBC Credit Cards.

References

{{reflist Financial services companies of the Philippines Companies listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange Companies based in Pasig

History

See also

References