BPI launches new AI-powered tool to help Filipinos ‘Track and Plan’ their spending like a boss

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

The new BPI app’s Track and Plan is a pioneering feature that empowers people to manage their money wisely. It’s like having a personal finance manager right at your fingertips!

The Bank of the Philippine Islands recently rolled out its first-in-the-industry feature on the new BPI app. Aptly called Track and Plan, this tool utilizes AI to track and analyze your financial activities on the BPI app, share insights on your spending habits, and even offer suggestions for smarter financial investments—so you can plan for your future.

You may have already seen it when you logged on to your BPI app. It’s the animated scrolling cards at the top of the screen. Based on your latest transactions, Track and Plan will generate insights around your cashflow and float up snippets to notify you of, say, similar withdrawals made back-to-back.

You can get the full insight with more details when you click on the notification and easily get in touch with BPI if you need to.

Another insight could be about unexpected changes in deposits from a familiar payor made to your account.

When your balance is consistently high that it sufficiently covers your average monthly expenses, Track and Plan will suggest ways you can invest and grow your extra funds.

Track and Plan can also monitor trends in your spending and alert you in case your bill was higher than your average—so you can be more mindful of your budget.

This AI-powered tool generates unique insights that only you can view, and you can rest assured about the privacy of your financial transactions. It is the first of its kind in the industry. By design, Track and Plan will continue to give you new insights based on your app usage.

"I have been covering the financial industry for decades and I have never seen a banking app that acts like a financial advisor with powerful access to tools that allow anyone to move from knowledge to action,” says veteran journalist and ‘Financial Beshie ng Bayan’ Salve Duplito. “Let’s face it, most of us get offended when someone tells us we are spending too much, but with Track and Plan, it’s like you telling you! So our emotional human experience gets a big jolt of logic — and that could be transformational in bringing our country’s savings rate higher.”

“We at BPI are excited to unveil Track and Plan, our AI-powered personal finance management tool on the new BPI app,” says Mariana Zobel de Ayala, Consumer Marketing and Platforms Head at BPI. “We are leveraging technology to simplify money management to empower Filipinos to do more and make their lives better every day. This feature essentially scales BPI’s seasoned and personalized financial advice to millions of Filipinos and is the next step forward in BPI’s evolution. Our customers can look forward to more in-depth insights and actionable advice as we continue to develop this feature.”

As AI learns from patterns or features in data, insights from Track and Plan gets better the more you use it. BPI will also be expanding its capabilities in the coming months so users will eventually have the option to turn on automatic monthly investments, schedule their most frequent transactions, and best of all, stay on top of their spending and earnings with a built-in budget tracker. All these will be available exclusively on the new BPI app.

Time to “move app,” don’t you think?

To start getting AI-powered insights, download the new BPI app if you haven’t yet—or update to the latest version. Download it here or scan the QR code below.

Sunsetting of the old BPI app is targeted for September 30, 2023. Download the new app and activate your devices by then!

CIC Prepares for Girder Launching Activity in CAVITEX

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Cavitex Infrastructure Corporation (CIC), the concessionaire of the Manila-Cavite Expressway (CAVITEX), is set to commence the girder launching activity for the CAVITEX C5 Link Segment 2 R1 Interchange.

Scheduled from September 15 to September 25, 2023, between 10 PM to 4 AM, CIC will implement counterflow schemes at the Parañaque Toll Plaza. The scheme will be in effect from September 15 to 19, 2023, for Manila-bound traffic, and from September 19 to 25, 2023, for Cavite-bound traffic. To alleviate congestion during the activity, CIC will activate counterflow lanes as needed.

CIC President and General Manager, Mr. Raul L. Ignacio, emphasized, "CAVITEX C5 Link Segment 2 once completed by the first quarter of 2024 will help cut travel time to Sucat Road from CAVITEX (Coastal Road) and vice versa by 10 minutes, making daily commutes more efficient and seamless for our motorists."

 

The R-1 Interchange is a vital 1.9-kilometer segment (Segment 2) of the CAVITEX C5 Link project, a 7.7-kilometer, 2x3 lane expressway set to connect CAVITEX R1 to C5 Road in Taguig. Once CAVITEX C5 Link is fully completed, it is anticipated to serve over 50,000 vehicles per day, significantly reducing travel times to and from Makati and Taguig from Parañaque City, Las Piñas City, and Cavite Province, ultimately easing traffic congestion within Metro Manila.

CIC is a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC) - the leading mobility infrastructure and solutions provider in the Philippines. It is the toll road development arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC). Aside from CAVITEX and CAVITEX C5 Link, MPTC also holds concession rights for the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), the Subic-Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), the NLEX Connector Road, and the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) in Cebu.

Actual photo of girder launching activity for CAVITEX C5 Link last 2018 over SLEX. Similar activity will be done at CAVITEX Paranaque (near Toll Plaza) for CAVITEX C5 Link R1 Interchange construction. During the girder launching activity starting September 15 to 24, 2023, counterflow lane will be activated for all vehicle classes.

Mapúa students highlight experimental works in VanGarde filmfest

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Digital Film majors from the Mapúa University School of Media Studies hosted a competition and screening of 24 student projects during the VanGarde Experimental Film Festival, with the theme “Clairvoyance Meeting,” at the Mapúa Cardinal Cinema in Makati.

When the dust had settled, Pearl Barcos and Franz Bautista bagged the Best Experimental Film award for “Who Let the Dogs Out?” In the film, “choices are to be determined by blindly following the inducing mechanisms of money and power” in the eyes of a new civilization.

“It’s been a few days since this happened, but it still feels surreal that our short experimental film ‘Who Let the Dogs Out?’ won Best Film at the VanGarde Experimental Film Festival,” Bautista shared.

“Glitters,” a film following a fish that “seeks through the sea of plastic waste that is now blending in with marine life and finds itself trapped in its own habitat,” won first runner-up for director Darryl Villafuerte.

Villafuerte also recently took home second prize and Best Regional Entry for “Glitters” under the Experimental Film category and honorable mention for his documentary “Daíng” at the 35th Gawad CCP for Alternative Film and Video or Gawad Alternatibo. The Bulakenyo filmmaker previously won Best Picture, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Design for “Glitters” at the 11th Sine Bulacan Film Festival.

The Mapúan filmmaker revealed that “Glitters” was inspired by the litter he saw in the waters of Pamarawan, Malolos, Bulacan while filming his documentary “Daíng,” which also won honorable mention at Sinepiyu. “As vast as our marine life flourishes, it gets destroyed and confined by unharmful-looking specks of colorful dust that are not from the ocean world,” he explained.

Kimi Crisostomo got the second runner-up prize for “Mga Manikang Pinipilipit,” which shows a man slowly exposing the inner workings of a Matryoshka Doll and in turn inflicting dangers upon himself.

The Special Jury Award went to “Strain” directed by Jericho Jeriel. In the film, “nightmare envelopes the great strain lurking within ourselves” in an era of great stress and anxiety.

Johan Gonzales received the Honorable Mention prize for “Ilusyon.” The film focuses on how “a higher power that once swore to serve us” has silenced people “in order to hide the greater truth.”

The other films shown during the festival, which was divided into four clusters, are “Ad Visum” by Elias Pernecita III, “Altschmerz” by Alexandra Dungca, “Black/White” by Jera Sombrero, “Eye Globe” by Angela Isabelle Colada, “Frayed” by Kaye Celine Abat, “Frosh Lie” by Angelo Oliveria and Elijah Enero, “Handa nang Hindi na” by Reizel Caballero and Reyana Velasquez, “He Does It” by Nolz Dela Cruz, “Hold (Fast)” by Hansel Jimenez and Vince Maliksi, “Imaginari” by Patrick Pregonero, “Pangamba” by Maria Juliana Villar, “Playing God” by Bianca Villanueva, “Reseta” by Jo Javier, “Tak-tak” by Christian Stephen Espiritu, “Take That Man” by Hassmir Kier Silos, “Tanganan ‘yan” by Yvon Kate Arcal, “The Blocks” by Via Kaye, “The Five Stages of Bro Split” by Ryem Panganiban, “The Reverie” by Rei Cordero, and “Too Much” by Justine Carl Villoso.

Interdisciplinary artist and advocacy filmmaker Richard Soriano Legaspi, director/editor Maria Estela Paiso, and photographer, filmmaker, and advertising director Arjanmar Rebeta served as jury.

VanGarde started as a virtual film festival in 2021, with the aim of showing experimental films from the DF124P Experimental Film Production class of Dr. David R. Corpuz, program chair of Mapúa Film under SMS. The Film Festival Management class of Kristine Camille Sulit organized the event this year.