Consumer Financial Protection

We are serious about our customers’ rights and have established ways to safeguard them.

Consumer Protection: We are guided by our BSP regulations and our Consumer Protection Policy Manual. In 2022, 93% of our employees completed the e-learning module on our customer protection policy.

Customer Complaints: We have an established Consumer Assistance Management System (CAMS), Customer Incident Management, and CBS Consumer Assistance Policies and Procedures Manual.

Fraud Prevention

We are committed to keep our clients and our ecosystem at harm’s way from fraudsters, scammers, and other illegal elements. We help inform our clients through our own #FightFraud and industry-led Scam Proof education awareness initiatives.

Marketing and Labeling

We are honest and truthful in our marketing. Our materials are written in a clear, concise, and complete manner. These materials also adhere to government and industry guidelines. As a result, we reported no incidents of non-compliance with regard to our marketing and labeling.

Information Security and Availability

We assure our clients and stakeholders that we always protect our information and systems from authorized access, use, disclosure, medication, recording, disruption, and destruction.

Role of the Board and Senior Management

We have a robust IT governance structure consisting of a Board-level IT Steering Committee and management-level IT Governance Committee.

Information Security Governance and Measures

We have not experienced any breach of information security or other cybersecurity incidents, including those which have affected our IT infrastructure, since 2019. This achievement reflects our strong information security governance and framework.

Privacy Protection

We follow the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and set a robust Privacy Policy. Responsible for handling privacy issues is our our Data Protection Department (DPD).

Customer Privacy

We take our customer’s privacy very seriously. Thus, our Privacy Policy allows us to have well-defined protocols, secure databases, and periodic revalidation of our procedures, among other efforts.

Data Security

We have adopted an end-to-end process to secure information from identifying the list of information, collection, and storage to disclosure protocol for the organization, including third parties.

In 2022, 99% of our employees completed e-learning courses on the Bank’s information security and cybersecurity practices.

Milestones in Data Privacy Awareness

Creation of Data Privacy Department Folder in the Metrobank Insight under Metrobank Manuals and Handbooks – Policies and Procedures.

Conduct of a data privacy breach drill

Conduct of Data Protection Officers’ Summit

Conduct of data privacy orientation for new hires, branch risk officers, select branch administrative officers, and Customer Engagement Group (CEG).

Anti-Crime

We have zero tolerance for money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy

As a good corporate citizen, we empower the communities we reach and serve through our corporate social responsibility programs and employee volunteerism.

Metrobank Foundation has delivered programs driving several UN SDGs, including grants and social development partnerships, professorial chair lectures, fellowships, scholarship grant, art and science competitions for the youth, teacher recognition, and culture and heritage education program, among noteworthy projects.

Our employees – led by the total of 8,014 volunteers – also contribute to our community-building initiatives: driving support for the Brigada Eskwela; supporting health and learning needs of students in the Bangsaromo Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; and implementing our Shoebox Project.

GOING THE DISTANCE TO HONOR EXCELLENCE

The children of the Matigsalug indigenous peoples (IPs) in San Fernando, Bukidnon have little to no access to quality education, just like many of the country’s IPs. They live in a remote town called Sitio Balugo, only accessible via hours-long trekking across muddy roads and 17 rivers.

Very few teachers were willing to go the distance for the sitio kids, except for one. In 2016, Junmerth C. Jorta became a full-time teacher in the newly established school for indigenous students, Keupiyanan Te Balugo. Since then, he has been running programs to fight illiteracy and hunger among the Matigsalug people.

Keupiyanan Te Balugo is a last-mile school, a makeshift school with limited teaching materials and facilities. Determined to provide the Matigsalug community with the education they deserved, Mr. Jorta became ingenious and resourceful. He improvised, localized, and indigenized reading materials that students can bring home and designed a radio-based instruction module. These initiatives proved useful during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when students had to study independently at home.

Mr. Jorta also pays extra attention to pupils who are having a difficult time with the lessons. He conducts special reading sessions in students’ homes and invites their siblings and parents to follow the assignments as well, as many of them don’t know how to read.

Malnutrition is also another issue he had to address. When he first arrived in the sitio, students often dropped out of school because of hunger. So, he partnered with the non-government organization Hapagasa, the Mayor’s Office, and the Department of Agriculture to provide free, nutritionally balanced meals for the students and their families.

As a result of these literacy and nutrition programs, cases of absenteeism and dropouts in the sitio gradually fell. The Matisalug children now have the fighting chance to pursue higher education degrees and break out of the poverty trap.

Above and beyond his call of duty, Mr. Jorta has uplifted the lives, not just of his students, but of the entire Matigsalug community. For all these, Metrobank Foundation, Inc. (MBFI) conferred the title “Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Filipino” to Mr. Jorta. The award is one of the Foundation’s long-running programs that recognizes public servants whose contributions in service and community involvements are geared towards making a difference “Beyond Excellence.”

In addition to providing recognition and cash prize to the awardees, MBFI enables them to further their advocacy, just like Mr. Jorta whose small steps toward giving access to education can go a long mile in eradicating hunger and illiteracy. The awardees also get to create ripples of inspiration in society as they now have the opportunity to be a part of the Metrobank Foundation Fellowship in Public Service (FPS) program where their professional milestones and personal life stories are widely shared through roundtable forums and other public events.

The FPS also serves as a platform for MBFI to help in strengthening institutions through the sharing of best practices for replication.