Gotyme redefines digital banking in the Philippines with its unique phygital approach

GoTyme prides itself as a service with a human touch. It is a relatively new digital bank in the country with a fairly simple account setup.

Christopher John Bennet, is the chief technology officer of GoTyme, and we had sat with him a few weeks ago to talk about GoTyme, it’s features, and how they can protect users in this digital landscape.

One of the things that makes GoTyme standout, Bennet said, is their “Phygital” approach. “We’re not just digital, so many banks out there will have a mobile app, and they’ll be able to onboard – which is fantastic! But we have a physical kiosk, which you’ll find at lots of supermarkets at Robinsons across the country.”

Christopher John Bennet, chief technology officer of GoTyme Bank, Philippines

GoTyme prides itself as being able to set up an account in five minutes or less. You start by downloading the app on your mobile device to create an account and then proceed to Robinson’s Mall, where a GoTyme kiosk may be found at the department store or at the supermarket, to have your physical card be printed.

The printed GoTyme card will have your name on it, which is, again I will say: Pretty cool. The card itself also is quite different, having a metallic sheen, which feels nice just by having it in your pocket.

“Within five minutes, you have a working bank account straight away,” Bennet said. “So many people are into digital – digital natives are happy to open an account online, but these kiosks just opens us up to many more types of people: People who are, perhaps scared of their phone, they see this kiosk and see an ambassador standing by, they think ‘oh I can just ask a question’ or ‘I can talk to someone and get a bit more comfortable.’”

GoTyme ambassadors are people who are standing beside GoTyme kiosks, ready to answer all your questions and help you setup your account.

Just a random observation on my part, in the next couple of days after speaking with Chris Bennet, I somehow ended up in Robinsons Townville while visiting my grandmother. They had, much to my surprise, a GoTyme kiosk. And I did see people across different age groups approach the kiosk and speak with the ambassador. Later that evening, before going home, I decided to get my own GoTyme card and found two people were also getting their cards.

Through GoTyme, you will be able to pay merchants by scanning QR Ph codes, pay bills, and buy load. Limits include up to P500,000 per transaction, with some up to P100,000 per day. QR payments and in-store card payments up to P250,000 per day, which is not bad! Basically, anywhere you can use a debit card, you can use your GoTyme card to make purchases.

One of the allures of GoTyme is the Go Savings, where you gain 5 percent interest annually. Of course, one can guess this is an early bird perk for GoTyme users. But as users continue to grow, and in order to become sustainable, that five percent will gradually go down. So if you want to get on that five percent, now’s your chance.

Another of the perks of GoTyme is Go Rewards. Basically, as the name suggests, it’s a rewards card. One of its biggest perks though, is once you gain 10,000 rewards points, you can redeem it and gain P8,000.

GoTyme partners include: Robinsons Supermarket, Easymart, the Marketplace, Shopwise, Robinsons Department Store, Toys R Us, Rose Pharmacy, Southstar Drug, DAISO Japan, Robinsons Appliances, Savers Appliances, No Brand, Handyman, True Value, Super 50, Pet Lovers Centre, and Cebu Pacific.

The GoTyme app itself is attractive and has a futuristic feel to it. You can tap the center icon and bring out all the menu to choose from while the icon lingers around in a very sci-fi way. It’s rather, very cool to look at. The app is simple and easy to use. All you might need from the app are visible in the first screen. Accessing other information is also a tab away, and all information is handed out to you as simple and clear as possible. Access to customer support is also very easy, should anyone need it.

And customer support is one of the things that GoTyme prides itself on. You will have access to customer service chat, email, or call. Best of all, you will be talking to humans, and not bots.

In the rise of cybercrimes, Chris Bennet talked about how to GoTyme can safeguard itself and its users from attacks.

“We cater to global technologies to help support GoTyme,” Bennet said. “For example, we work with Actimize, who is a global leader in both transaction fraud and AML onboarding. That allows us to create a whole bunch of machine learning and AI driven models for us to make choices around, to help to know if this transaction is a real one or a fake one, and within the app itself we made a lot of choices to make it simple for the customer but also make it secure at the same time.”

As a security feature, GoTyme doesn’t allow installations on multiple devices at a time. If you lost your smartphone, Bennet said you can contact your telecom and get your number back, effectively killing the old number. This would allow you to get your GoTyme account back using a new smartphone with your old number.

GoTyme also uses SonarQube, a tool used to assess a code for laws. This allows GoTyme to monitor all their systems for any vulnerabilities and problems that may arise. SonarQube allows them to address these issues right away.

“We also take advantage that we’re a digital bank,” Bennet said. “But we’re also a cloud-based bank, and so we really take advantage of Amazon as well, AWS–” Amazon Web Services “–has a team of thousands of security engineers who constantly work on the platform to protect their clients from all kinds of threats.”

“As a new digital bank,” Bennet added, “We can never afford a great big team and security experts, and so we get partners, and one of those is Amazon with their range of certifications, they have security certifications, they have all the PCI certifications, and we get to tap in all of that at a much lower cost.”

GoTyme is known in South Africa as Tyme, a financial solution provider. When they arrived in the Philippines, Tyme partnered with the Gokongwei Group, hence, the “Go” in Tyme.

Bennet said that the cybersecurity landscape of the Philippines is similar to South Africa, in terms of having threats and illegal activities. Bennet said, they have picked up what they have learned in operations from South Africa and brought them here in the Philippines.

Bennet also spoke about customer service and how they will have actual humans – and not AI – to address specific concerns. Bennet has used as an example, of people needing to cancel their cards as soon as possible, because the card itself has been compromised. Sometimes, this process can take hours, and while their bills continue to skyrocket from multiple subsequent unauthorized purchases, the victim will have to sit through it while listening to an elevator music, which can really raise tempers.

Bennet promised that humans will be there to address concerns right away. “Just pick up the phone, then a couple of minutes, the agents will answer your questions. Our agents got all your information at their fingertips, they see what happened and immediately take action.”

Chris Bennet has been part of the Tyme group for seven years, starting in South Africa and has also worked with the Tyme development team in Vietnam.