​​​​​​​RCBC Trust Corporation has changed considerably since its days as the Trust and Investments Group within Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC). Now operating as a standalone trust corporation within the wider Yuchengco Group, the business is building across institutional mandates, wealth and retail distribution, digital investment access and closer collaboration with other parts of RCBC.

The growth has been substantial. According to President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Robert Ramos, assets under management (AUM) have risen from roughly PHP 94 billion (USD 1.5 billion) in 2019 to around PHP 230 billion (USD 3.7 billion) as of June 2026. Ramos attributes much of that expansion to making better use of relationships across the group and widening the routes through which clients can access investments.

Client behaviour is changing at the same time. Younger investors are increasingly comfortable transacting without visiting a branch or relying heavily on a relationship manager, while wealthier clients are asking for portfolios that more closely reflect their own investment preferences. RCBC Trust is responding through digital investment capabilities, selective personalisation and further improvements to the infrastructure behind the client experience.

Key Takeaways

  • The spin-off has given RCBC Trust greater flexibility: The corporation remains part of the wider Yuchengco Group and continues to work closely with RCBC’s institutional, wealth and retail businesses.

  • Institutional mandates remain an important foundation: Retirement funds, facility agency mandates and other institutional relationships require both sustained fund performance and high service standards.

  • AUM has more than doubled since 2019: Ramos puts assets under management at around PHP 230 billion (USD 3.7 billion) as of June 2026, against approximately PHP 94 billion (USD 1.5 billion) in 2019.

  • Digital investment access has gained traction: RCBC Trust’s digital Investment Management Account (IMA) has grown to more than 1,000 account holders and close to PHP 1 billion (USD 16 million) in AUM, according to Ramos.

  • Different clients increasingly require different levels of service: Younger investors often prefer digital self-service, while clients at the upper end of the wealth spectrum can require much greater personalisation.

  • AI is being considered from both an efficiency and risk perspective: Ramos sees artificial intelligence (AI) as a way to increase productivity, while recognising that it is also creating more sophisticated fraud and cybersecurity threats.

  • RCBC Trust acts as an investment hub within the wider group: It works with RCBC Wealth, Treasury, Securities and other divisions to help clients access and manage investments without having to navigate each part of the organisation separately.

 

A Broader Role After the Spin-Off

RCBC Trust Corporation began operating independently following the spin-off of RCBC’s Trust and Investments Group. The new structure has given the business greater flexibility, particularly around institutional accounts, while retaining its links across the Yuchengco Group.

Institutional business accounts for a significant part of RCBC Trust’s activities. The corporation works alongside RCBC’s institutional banking operations on retirement funds, facility agency mandates and other accounts.

Ramos places particular weight on retirement funds because they tend to be long-term relationships and provide a clear measure of an investment manager’s capabilities.

“Retirement funds are sticky and they provide good fees, but they also show how good you are as a fund manager,” he says. “You have to perform at a high level in the portfolio and make sure the servicing is equally strong.”

The individual client business is developed primarily through RCBC Wealth and retail banking. Depending on eligibility and requirements, clients can access local bonds, government securities, unit investment trust funds (UITFs), exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other investment funds. Advisory and estate-planning services are also available.

There can be crossover between the two sides of the business. Senior executives within institutional clients may have personal investment requirements of their own, creating another connection between the group’s corporate and wealth relationships.

Ramos believes those links have been important to the increase in AUM. “We started with roughly PHP 94 billion in 2019 and, as of June, we are at around PHP 230 billion,” he says. “A major reason has been our ability to tap the different ecosystems, work with our partners and find more ways to serve the client.”

Building Digital Access

RCBC Trust began stepping up its digital investment capabilities around 2020 and 2021, as remote banking and investment activity became more established in the Philippines.

One of the main developments was a digital Investment Management Account (IMA). It allows clients to establish a trust account, access eligible investments and view their portfolio digitally.

According to Ramos, the platform began with five accounts and roughly PHP 200,000 in assets. It has since grown to more than 1,000 account holders and close to PHP 1 billion (USD 16 million) in AUM.

The growth reflects a wider change in how some clients want to deal with financial institutions, particularly among younger investors.

 

“The next generation does not necessarily want to come to the branch or the head office to talk about products,” Ramos says. “They might send you a message or an email. A lot of them already know what they want and would rather transact themselves.”

 

That makes ease of execution increasingly important. Digital UITFs have been available in the Philippine banking system for some time, but the IMA extends the range of investments that can be held and monitored within a digital trust relationship.

RCBC Trust continues to upgrade the platform, with Ramos placing particular emphasis on making it easier and more intuitive to use.

Personalisation for the Upper Tier

The preference for self-directed access is less pronounced at the higher end of the wealth market, where Ramos is seeing stronger demand for individualised portfolios.

Some clients have a clear preference for equities and equity funds. Others may want greater exposure to global fixed income or types of investment funds. Serving those clients can require more flexibility in the products and processes available to them.

Ramos describes the approach as selective hyper-personalisation. It is reserved for relationships where the client’s needs justify a more bespoke service rather than being applied across the entire client base.

“If a client is very focused on equities, we need to make sure we can give that person the equity funds they want,” he says. “If another client prefers global fixed income, our processes need to accommodate that as well.”

The distinction is important to RCBC Trust’s broader strategy. Digital access can deal efficiently with clients who know what they want and prefer to act independently. More complex wealth relationships still require greater involvement from investment professionals and relationship managers.

Developing the Next Generation

Ramos sees another next-generation issue inside RCBC Trust itself. The corporation needs to understand how younger clients want to invest, but it also must develop the employees who will manage those relationships in future. Succession planning therefore forms part of the business strategy.

That involves identifying people with the potential to move into more senior positions and assessing where skills may need to be brought in from outside the organisation.

Training starts with the technical requirements of the role. Trust personnel undertake relevant trust and UITF training, supported by internal programmes covering products, services and portfolios.

Less experienced staff are also paired with more senior colleagues when they begin dealing directly with clients.

“You would not send a new person to face a client completely on their own,” Ramos says. “You make sure there is a senior officer there who can guide them.”

The objective is to combine technical knowledge with practical experience. Digitalisation may reduce the amount of routine interaction required for some clients, but Ramos still sees investment expertise and client judgement as important capabilities for the business.

AI, Operations and Risk

Strengthening the operational side of RCBC Trust is another priority.

As more client activity moves onto digital channels, Ramos wants the corporation to improve efficiency while keeping its controls, governance and cybersecurity capabilities up to date.

AI is already influencing that work. Ramos has seen relatively small teams use the technology to increase their output significantly, particularly on tasks that involve processing or organising information.

 

“I have seen what AI can do for a team of five or seven people,” he says. “It can magnify what they can do. The important thing is finding the right mix and making sure you are still checking the output.”

 

The concern is that the same technology can also be used to make fraud more sophisticated.

That raises the importance of protecting client accounts, information and transactions as the business becomes more digital. Existing security measures need to keep evolving as new threats emerge.

Ramos therefore sees AI adoption as part of a wider operational programme rather than a standalone technology project. Productivity matters, but so do compliance, governance and the security of the systems through which clients increasingly interact with the corporation.

Connecting the Investment Offering

Ramos also wants RCBC Trust to shorten the time between identifying a product clients want and being able to make it available.

External platforms can help. These providers are one way of improving access to third-party investment funds without having to establish every relationship separately.

 

“We have to be able to take products that clients want and find a way to deliver them quickly and efficiently,” he says.

 

There is also scope to reach beyond the client groups RCBC Trust has traditionally served. RCBC Wealth management, RCBC Retail banking and RCBC Institutional banking remain its main channels, but Ramos sees potential in other parts of the RCBC customer base, including clients who may begin investing with smaller amounts.

Within wealth management, RCBC Trust has a more specific role.

RCBC Wealth performs the bank’s private-banking and wealth-management function and holds the primary relationship with many clients through its relationship managers (RMs). Where those clients require investment-management services, they can be onboarded separately to RCBC Trust.

The trust corporation has its own know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, agreements and investment-management accounts. Once those are in place, clients can use it to hold and manage investments including government securities, bonds, equities, UITFs and ETFs.

RCBC Trust can then coordinate with other parts of the group. Bond transactions may involve RCBC Treasury, while equity purchases can be executed with the involvement of RCBC Securities. The client does not necessarily need to manage those relationships individually.

“If the wealth client asks Trust to handle everything, we can coordinate with Treasury for the bonds and Securities for the equities,” Ramos explains. “We can then consolidate those investments into the client’s financial statement.”

Its position as a fiduciary also means RCBC Trust must seek appropriate execution for clients rather than automatically directing every transaction through another RCBC entity.

The model leaves the RM at the centre of the wealth relationship while allowing the trust corporation to bring together the investment side of it. For clients using several products or asset classes, that coordination can make a large financial group considerably easier to deal with.