Trusting Social and Datung Use Telco Data to Speed Up MSME Loans in the Philippines
Micro-entrepreneurs without a borrowing history can now be assessed through alternative data, as most small businesses don’t keep financial statements.
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Trusting Social Philippines has integrated its AI-powered telco credit score into the lending engine of microfinance company Datung, allowing Datung to approve MSME loans in the Philippines within minutes for borrowers with no credit history, the companies announced.
Datung, which operates from Singapore and Manila, will use the score for unsecured personal loans and microfinance. Instead of relying on financial statements, which most micro-enterprises don’t keep, it will assess applicants through alternative data.
Using Telco Data to Assess Borrowers
Trusting Social’s models analyse behavioural signals, such as how consistently a person pays and how stable their activity is over time, and return a score in seconds.
The company has operated in the Philippines since 2019 and says it has scored more than 110 million Filipinos.
Johnny Escaler
“Having no paper trail doesn’t mean someone isn’t reliable,” said Johnny Escaler, CEO of Trusting Social Philippines.
Datung CEO Kasper Abildgaard Svendsen said the company combines the telco score with e-wallet cash flows, insights from its field officers and its group lending model, with every repayment feeding back into its models.
Charan Uttamchandani
“The scoring does not replace any of that. It points us toward more of the people worth visiting,” added Chief Operating Officer Charan Uttamchandani.
Borrowers approved this way also start building a formal repayment record from their first loan.
MSME Lending in the Philippines
MSMEs made up 99.63% of the Philippines’ 1.24 million registered businesses in 2024, according to Philippine Statistics Authority data, and provide about two-thirds of the country’s jobs.
That’s well below the 10% benchmark under the Magna Carta for MSMEs, which the companies cited.
The gap could keep widening as more Filipinos start businesses.
The Department of Trade and Industry recorded nearly 850,000 business name registrations in the first eight months of 2026, up 8% year on year, according to the companies.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Philippines based on an image by Trusting Social via its Press Release.
