Graphic designer and entrepreneur Seigfred Barcelona may consider August 13 as a very lucky day. On that day this year, he became richer by P500,000 just by being a user of GSave, the save-money feature of the GCash app.
Barcelona was GSave’s 500th user. He was also representative of the service’s major milestone—more than 500,000 users of GSave with its partner CIMB Bank Philippines (CIMB Bank PH, a unit of the Malaysian lender) in just about six months since it was rolled out locally.
During the milestone ceremony held at the Grand Hyatt Manila, GCash and CIMB Bank PH also announced that the GSave bank account will be exclusively offered only on the GCash platform. Moreover, the companies revealed that they will be further teaming up to develop added suites of financial services products that will soon be available to GCash users.
“The acquisition of 500,000 users is a clear testament that the partnership between GCash and CIMB Bank through GSave is a success,” said GCash President and Chief Executive Officer Anthony Thomas. “We welcome this achievement and the deepening of our collaboration with CIMB Bank and assure our users that we will continue to provide more innovative services to address the banking and financial needs of Filipinos who aspire for financially better lives for their families.”
The more than 500,000 GSave users are now enjoying the benefits of CIMB’s savings account, which is available as the Save Money feature on the GCash app. GSave offers an interest rate of 3% annually, more than 10 times compared to interest rates offered by most Philippine banks (which is about 0.025% on the average). GSave also skips the requirement for an initial deposit or maintaining balance. It also refrains from imposing service charges for transactions, which are the usual barriers for ordinary Filipinos to open and maintain a savings account.
“CIMB Bank PH is surely the fastest growing bank in the ASEAN region—a wonderful achievement—and a strong testament of things that can be achieved in the regime of digital-only banks. We are motivated by this and will continue to innovate for our customers,” said CIMB Group CEO Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Aziz.
There is a good reason to look forward to the 1 millionth user.