Members of the banking business department raise their thumbs in the Bank of China’s Banking Hall. (Contributed photo)Second of three partsThe Covid-19 pandemic has caught everybody offguard and posed unprecedented challenges, as no one was prepared for it. The past few months have been difficult; it tested our strength and resilience, which we needed for us to weather the storm. The pandemic had turned our lives upside-down in a blink of an eye. The freedom and comfort that we used to experience were replaced by uncertainty and fear — fear of things not being able to go back to normal, fear of contracting the coronavirus, fear of the sudden loss of family and friends. Every task and errand — even something as basic as buying groceries — has become an obstacle course. But this did not stop us from moving forward.Under its business continuity plan (BCP), the Bank of China (BOC) has strived to maintain normal operations to support the needs of our clients during this time. The past few months has pushed the team to explore and go beyond what was expected of it in the normal course of business. Although it was not easy to maintain usual business operations during the pandemic, the situation gave us the opportunity to test, for instance, the resilience, creativity and coordination of employees in response to unforeseen events and problems. Even when everything seemed difficult and unsure, everyone was still present and worked together, ready to take on the challenges with dedication and the spirit of friendship and empathy, the willingness to listen and be heard, and the assurance that no matter what happens, we would still be able to get through the crisis with each other’s support. As Helen Keller once said, “Alone, we can do so little, but together, we can do so much.”Furthermore, our team had to work doubly hard since financial services are even more critical for corporate clients to ensure their business’ viability. Providing uninterrupted and efficient financial services to our customers has not been easy. The team had to learn how to effectively work from home, work on shifts, access customer data and information outside the office, and communicate with both clients and operations teams. Even with a firm BCP in place, it was the operational details of the day-to-day transactions and customer engagements that we had to overcome.We learned how to recover quickly from the difficulties and challenges brought about by the new working environment. The team has always rallied for process improvements and changes, especially during this pandemic. New reports are now being generated and obtained to cover for our lack of access to the office systems. New monitoring processes have been implemented. Faster communication and coordination with other bank units are now being done through mobile apps. Process changes have been recommended and implemented for more efficient processing. All these were achieved through the team’s resilience and innovation during the current situation.We understand that we need to have a broader view of resilience to be able to help our clients navigate through increasing business complexities. This is why we have set out to communicate with our customers to gather their feedback, experiences and insights on how we can better serve them. As an example, one of the BOC’s clients that have been affected by the current crisis tried to sustain its operations. Beyond offering banking services to them, the bank went above and beyond by prioritizing our client for our own sourcing requirements of information technology products and solutions to help it make its business more resilient.Our core value of professionalism is strongly ingrained in our work culture that beyond providing our financial services, we want to make a positive difference in each and every customer during this difficult period. In communicating with our clients, we see to it that we share the value of resilience by also helping them keep things in perspective and showing them how to maintain a hopeful outlook with the BOC as their banking partner. At present, the bank continues to deliver high-quality financial services to all our clients amid the pandemic. Normal banking operations remain after implementing a BCP in compliance with the national government’s community quarantine in Metro Manila. We have identified key personnel that will man both critical and noncritical units to ensure banking operations resume even in the event of a severe business disruption. We have put in place necessary measures to provide our customers with temporary relief in the form of extensions of principal and interest payment on loans and discounts while continuing to accommodate new loan requirements of clients during the pandemic.To be concluded on Saturday
