MANILA -- Bank of the Philippine Islands launched its refreshed brand on Thursday, joining other Filipino lenders in highlighting their shift to digital services.

The 168-year-old banking arm of the Ayala Group said it simplified its logo, including the shield or "escudo," to make it more suitable for digital executions. The lender also recently refreshed its mobile app.

"Digitalization is required because of our objective of becoming more financially inclusive," said BPI chief marketing officer Cathy Santamaria.

"While we are 168 years old, we have to earn our future every single day, and that means that we must do all we can to help secure the financial futures of our own customers," said BPI president Cezar Consing.

Rival Unionbank is on a "digitize or perish" campaign, outfitting its branches with tablets and looking for ways to utilize blockchain technology.

The Netherlands' ING Bank and Malaysia's CIMB also recently launched app-based banking services in the Philippines.

In April, some of BPI's online services were inaccessible for 3 days as it embarked on a systems upgrade.