THE CHALLENGE: The consumer complaints system at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the Philippines Central Bank, hereafter BSP) was limited by outdated communication channels, an incomplete database of customer complaints, reliance on manual processing, few analytics tools, low visibility outside of the Metro Manila area, and little consideration for the customer experience. This was leaving BSP staff overburdened. BSP requested a solution from R2A to protect financial consumers’ interests, empower financial consumers, and facilitate the development and enforcement of a client-focused financial sector.

THE COMPETITION In October 2017, R2A published a request for applications for the development of a data request/storage platform and tools for data-driven metrics and insights for the AML department. A panel of judges will award a grant of up to US$100,000 to the winning firm, Proto / Sinitic.

THE SOLUTION: Working with R2A and Sinitic, the BSP rolled out a chatbot solution that allows Filipinos to file complaints through their mobile handsets via an app or via SMS, as well as as a processing utility to generates insights from all complaints that BSP receives. This enables BSP to:

• Address queries and complaints through the chatbot.
• Manage the structure and flow of automated conversations based on expertise and historical data.
• Use data and insights gathered through the chatbot and other channels for oversight and policy development. The solution reduce employee workload and response time by delegating routine tasks to the chatbot, saving human labor for more complex or nuanced tasks. Moreover, it amplifies the voice of consumers generating new insights about the customer journey and experience, and allows BSP supervisors to detect market misconduct.

By improving data quality and access and developing new tools for data visualization and analysis, the prototype will support BSP’s efforts to provide all Philippine financial consumers with effective access to a complaint system.