The Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) has rolled out an enabling digitalisation initiative with a new partnership with the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) for the SynerFi Open Finance Network. This move comes days after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released its Open Finance Framework. The BSP’s Open Finance Framework’s main premise is consent-driven data portability, interoperability and collaborative partnerships between financial institutions and fintech players. Through the SynerFi (Synergy in Finance) Open Finance Network, member banks of the RBAP and eventually, cooperatives, microfinance institutions, and other industry players will be able to set up their own…

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has issued a circular to put a stop to any entities that are misrepresenting themselves as digital banks in their marketing activities. While BSP has only recently granted its first batch of licenses, several entities have been seen posing as digital banks despite operating under a different license to mislead the public. These entities were warned against misrepresenting the public with respect to their banking categories or the products and services that they have been authorised to offer. In the circular to amend the rules and regulations governing bank advertisements, these entities were told…

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has granted the third digital bank license to Singapore headquartered fintech DigibankASIA, one of the primary incorporators of UNObank. In the past few months, BSP has granted the other two licenses to state-owned Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the LANDBANK in March and another to Tonik. UNObank will be helmed by Manish Bhai as CEO, a career banker and tech entrepreneur. Co-founder Kalidas Ghose is a recognised fintech influencer who led the effort to build FE Credit in Vietnam from scratch and created VP Banks digital bank ecosystem.…

Neobank Tonik announced that it has secured a digital bank license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as it has been operating under a rural banking license since 2019. A year later, BSP had issued a framework on the establishment of digital banks, clearing the way for Tonik to scale up and apply for a formal digital bank license. State-owned Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the LANDBANK was the first digital only bank to be granted a license in March by the Philippines central bank. The development comes after the neobank’s public launch…

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation’s (RCBC) financial inclusion super app DiskarTech is gaining ground as a preferred disbursement platform of Filipinos for social aid, loans proceeds, dividends, and other digital payments. Since the start of community quarantines in March 2020, RCBC has also disbursed P14.8 billion in government aid subsidy of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Labor and Employment to over 4.11 million households or over 20.56 individuals. In the last two months, DiskarTech averaged 83% in month-on-month growth in volume of received funds from Social Security System (SSS). Value of cash disbursements by the…

Philippines’ health maintenance organisation (HMO) Asalus Corporation which operates under the trade name Intellicare, partnered with Union Bank of the Philippines for ePaycard Digital Account Opening (eDAO). This helps to speed up the disbursement of professional fees, benefits, and other reimbursements for affiliated doctors. UnionBank offers an account opening facility that is efficient, paperless, and with a fully digital disbursement solution for the convenience of Intellicare affiliated doctors. To facilitate the opening of their accounts, the doctors will receive an SMS with a unique reference code which will be used to continue the application via the UnionBank app. Account opening…

Netbank, a banking as a service platform in the Philippines, has been launched by an experienced team of international and Filipino bankers. Much like its counterpart Tonik, Netbank is a fully regulated bank operating under a rural banking license. The platform is already in operation, booking loans originated by 3 alternative lenders. It has also built the infrastructure needed to provide a full range of banking services, using AWS to run its core banking system. Netbank provides simple, creative, low cost solutions so that fintech startups can open accounts, offer loans and manage payments. The bank announced plans to add…

The Fintech Alliance.PH and Fintech Philippines Association (FPH) introduced the Philippines Fintech Industry Sandbox pilot which was first announced during the Singapore Fintech Festival 2020. The sandbox pilot initiative is supported by the UK’s ASEAN Economic Reform Programme (ASEAN ERP) and was inspired by the UK Innovate Finance’s Industry Sandbox Consultative Report. The Philippines Fintech Industry Sandbox is hosted on the API Exchange (APIX) platform, a cloud-based open architecture API marketplace, developed by the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN). This initiative includes close coordination with key stakeholders including the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), APIX, Rural and Thrift Banks of…

Komo, a digital banking service created by EastWest Bank, has partnered with open banking solution provider Brankas to enable instant in-app deposits. With this partnership, Komo users can now instantly top-up their balance directly from the app. In order to do so, users can enter the amount they wish to top-up and select a source bank through Brankas’ secure SDK flow to deposit money to their Komo account. Through Brankas’ secure fund transfer APIs and extensive bank integration suite, customers can receive money from their choice of Philippine banks instantly in the app. Isabelle Yap, Business Lead at Komo said,…

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) announced that it witnessed massive growth in its digital payments volume in the past year. The value of InstaPay and PESONet fund transfers of RCBC Online and its mobile banking app increased by 293% compared to figures in March 2020, which marks the start of community quarantine in the Philippines. RCBC said that this is 109% higher than reported total growth recorded for transactions of all participating banks and e-money issuers. Additionally, the volume of digital fund transfers that was handled by RCBC swelled by 329%. Another contactless solution that saw dramatic surges is the…

Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, announced that the Union Bank of the Philippines will migrate its IT infrastructure from on-premises to cloud by 2022. The migration is intended to accelerate the bank’s digital transformation, improve customers’ digital banking experiences, and strengthen financial inclusion in the Philippines by bringing financial services to remote parts of the country. UnionBank said in a statement that it will push for a cloud-only IT transformation strategy to become the first major bank in the Philippines to be fully hosted in the cloud. When the migration is complete, UnionBank will run almost 400 mission-critical…

More than 800,000 have already signed up for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) via digital registration, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The government is urging Filipinos to sign up for the Philippine identification (PhilID), the national ID, to eliminate inefficient and expensive process of securing physical documents. Signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte in August 2018, Republic Act 11055, or the Philippine Identification System Act, aims to establish a single national ID for all Filipinos and its residents. The national ID shall be a valid proof of identity that shall be a means of simplifying public and…

The Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) has rolled out digital onboarding for its customers to enable them to open a savings account without the need to visit a physical branch. The state-run bank launched the digital onboarding system known as DOBS Mobile on May 12, 2021, which reportedly facilitates online savings account opening in 10 to 15 minutes. Using the LANDBANK app, customers need only to fill out application forms online and upload a valid identification card such as UMID, Passport, PRC ID, SSS, company ID or even school ID to open a digital savings account. The digital bank…

As the Philippines begins awarding its first digital banking licenses, incumbents are gearing up for a new era in banking, ramping up their digital capabilities to address market shifts and changing customer expectations. During a virtual panel discussion with Fintech News, experts from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), Bank of the Philippine Island (BPI) and Backbase discussed the imminent entrance of new digital-first players in the Filipino banking landscape, sharing insights on the latest developments and industry trends. In March, BSP granted its first digital banking license to Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank), a wholly-owned…

Philippines neobank Tonik announced that it has raised US$17 million in a Pre-Series B funding round. The round comes on the heels of Tonik’s public launch in March 2021, which saw it secure over US$20 million (1 billion pesos) in retail deposits in under 1 month. Led by Singapore’s iGlobe Partners, the round featured participation from existing shareholders Sequoia India, Altara Ventures, and Insignia Venture Partners as well as bringing in new investors Citius, Baring Vostok Capital Partners, and multiple Philippines family offices. Tonik said that the new funding will be used to invest aggressively in product development. The neobank…

Australian Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) company Zip Co has furthered its global expansion, announcing a strategic investment in TendoPay, a BNPL provider based in the Philippines. The investment represents Zip’s first step into South East Asia, which will also act as a launchpad for the company’s expansion into the region. The company has recently established central operations and commercial teams in Singapore, in preparation for further growth. Founded in 2018, TendoPay offers digital instalment plan solutions, with a focus on responsible lending. The platform gives Filipino consumers the convenience of instalment loans for online purchases and a choice of…

PayMaya, a mobile wallet under the purview of PLDT, has become the first fintech company to adopt QR Ph for merchants that was launched by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in cooperation with BancNet and the Philippine Payments Management. Launched by the BSP on April 30, QR Ph enables businesses to accept payments from customers of other banks and financial institutions for various transactions. Merchants all over the country will soon be able to easily accept QR payments from other participating banks in addition to the PayMaya e-wallet. Other participating financial institutions for the initiative include All Bank, Asia…

Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCOM) has gone live with Temenos Transact, a core banking Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, to offer digital-first banking services in the Philippines. PBCOMobile is its mobile-only suite of services which offers a broad suite of financial solutions ranging from deposits and corporate, commercial and personal loans, to cash management solutions and investment services. Supported by Temenos, PBCOM became one of the first commercial banks in the Philippines approved by the regulator to host its core banking system in the cloud. The Temenos SaaS solution allowed PBCOM to create PBCOMobile, a self-service onboarding and origination experience for its…

Latvian fintech VIA SMS Group continues to expand its presence in Asia-Pacific by investing in the development of consumer lending brand VAMO.ph in the Philippines. The decision on further strategic expansion in the region follows successful business operations in Vietnam launched in 2019 in partnership with another well-known consumer lender TWINO. Since the company’s launch in 2019, Vietnamese VAMO.vn has issued loans with a total value of more than 3 million EUR. VAMO.ph launched its operations in Philippines in the beginning of this year, and currently the company is engaged in intensive technical development to prepare for the product public…

Businesses in the Philippines are investing in user-friendly digital experiences and improving customer analytics as they perceive customer experience and innovation as strategic imperatives and critical differentiators, according to findings of a new study by Oxford Economics, a global economic forecasting and quantitative analysis firm, and global software firm SAP SE. The study, which surveyed 600 senior executives across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, found that in the Philippines, businesses both large and small view customer experiences as vital for their survival and growth with 53% citing improving customer experience as their top primary strategic priority, followed…