Members of the FinTech Alliance.ph have agreed to adopt a code of conduct for responsible online lending. This was after 48 online lenders have been cited for alleged unethical collection practices leading to data privacy violation. Over 400 harassment complaints from customers were reported to the National Privacy Commission. According to reports, operators of online lending applications that allegedly misused the borrower’s information, including the disclosure of unpaid balances to other people. Both the NPC and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the matter. “The public may have the wrong sweeping generalization that all online lenders are evil. The…

Philippines’ UnionBank has expressed their intention to invest around $US 9.6 Million into incubating or buying technology ventures where financial services could be wired into, and they’ll be refreshing the fund every year, according to Inquirer.net, UnionBank is among Philippines’ largest banking institutions and is currently undertaking a future-proofing exercise on its core banking operations. Beyond that, its new fintech arm will also be looking into other monetisation avenues outside of traditional banking. The investments will be made via its fintech/innovation arm, UBX Philippines Corp. The new venture will house UnionBank’s technology initiatives and experimentation, as well as ecosystem platform…

Maria Health, a Filipino aggregator for health insurance, has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from the tryb group, with participation from Gobi Ventures, Wavemaker, Hustle Fund and Grand Metro Holdings. Maria Health will use the additional funding to accelerate their scaling efforts in the Philippines, seeing themselves as a first-mover in the market and pushing hard to maintain their advantage. Spending on health expenditures in the Philippines has been on a gradual incline over the years, and according to the Philipine Statistics Authority, total health expenditures grew by 8% percent between 2016 and 2017. Households spent the highest in…

The song and dance for incumbents in Philippines right now is “future-proofing”. Joining the trend of entrenched establishments disrupting themselves before they are disrupted, the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) appoints Lito Villanueva as Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer effective May 1, 2019. Villanueva is no small fry, known to be a digital finance expert and thought leader across Southeast Asia. He is recognised for his pioneering work, including “sachet banking” initiative with five banks, in which sari-sari stores can serve as cash agents for banking transactions to cater to unbanked and underserved Filipinos. He was the first…

The Ayala Corporation, Philippines’ oldest conglomerate, is raising a new venture capital fund worth US$150 million, dedicated towards investing into early stage startups engaged in e-commerce, as well as what the company deems as disruptive technologies; like fintech, healthtech, artificial intelligence, among others. The fund will be looking into investments on a global level. The goal here is to complement the group’s traditional brick-and-mortar operations, with the goal of future-proofing their operations. Pegged to be one of the biggest VC funds in the Philippines, the money will be raised through Ayala’s subsidiaries, Bank of Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom, AC Energy, Ayala…

Bitspark, a bankless money transfer platform, has just launched what it claims to be the first market-ready cryptocurrency pegged to the Philippine Peso (PHP)—named the peg.PHP Based in Hong Kong, the blockchain-enabled company made the revelation today, following its recent launch of “the first” Hong Kong Dollar-pegged stablecoin, Sparkdex.HKD. Stablecoins here refer to cryptocurrencies that are backed by and pegged to the price of existing real-world assets. Launching a stablecoin has been all the rage lately too, with parties like Facebook developing a stablecoin for money transfers that is reportedly worth US$1 billion. Peg.PHP began listing on Sparkdex, Bitspark’s decentralised…

Philippines has been taking active steps recently to reform its regulation in efforts to position itself a crypto friendly regime . The country’s central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), released its rules for domestic exchange in February 2017, seeking to lay down a foundation for the country’s nascent cryptocurrency space. The rulings require entities offering exchange services to apply for a Certificate of Registration and register with the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat, among other requirements. But the BSP Circular 944 on virtual currency exchanges only covers crypto-to-fiat conversion activities and vice versa, implying that companies providing virtual exchange…

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has green-lit another 3 cryptocurrency exchanges to operate in the Philippines. The new licensed firms include Bexpress Inc,  Coinville Phils Inc. and Aba Global Philippines Inc. This brings the total number of licensed cryptocurrency exchange in Philippines to 10. Similar to previous cryptocurrency exchange licenses that BSP has granted it only permits for the exchanges to use cryptocurrency for the purposes of remittance and payments rather than a form of investment. However, with Bitcoin recently breaking the US$ 5,000 mark again, it seems it would be more likely for one to use cryptocurrencies as form of investment…

Singapore-based payroll services provider Excelity Global has partnered with Philippine mobile money wallet GCash to allow disbursement of salaries and reimbursements in an employee’s GCash account. This feature is directly integrated with Excelity’s payroll clients through the GCash App and the GCash Mastercard. Financial inclusion remains a challenge that lawmakers are attempting to tackle in Philippines, partnerships like this spells out a larger trend of fintechs attempting to be part of the solution. The Philippine based payments company is hardly alone in their attempt, as recent as last week Western Union tied-up with Coins.Ph to enable Filipinos to receive transfers…

Blockchain-based financial services company Coins.ph and  Western Union have teamed up to allow the fintech startup’s five million customers receive international and domestic money transfers directly into their mobile wallets in the Philippines. The collaboration was announced following news of Coins.ph’s acquisition by Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek last January. According to their press release, with the integration of the Coins.ph blockchain-enabled platform and Western Union’s cross-border platform, Filipinos can receive and hold international money transfers initiated from Western Union’s digital network in more than 60 countries and retail network in more 200 countries and territories. Coins.ph co-founder and CEO Ron…

Philippines is described by some as a hidden gem in the South East Asian fintech scene, our previous Fintech Philippines 2018 report demonstrates that this archipelagic nation has all the recipes in place for a booming fintech sector. A similar report published by the Milken Institute also suggested that Philippines will be entering a new phase of development. Those in the fintech sector would be remiss to overlook fintech scene in Philippines and what better way to get to know the scene than to attend some of the key fintech events in Philippines. In service of that, we’ve selected 11…

Strong fundamentals, a supportive regulator and a comprehensive cell phone coverage, are some of favorable attributes of the Philippine market set to drive the digital transformation of the country’s financial sector, according to a report released earlier this month by the Milken Institute. Titled Fintech in the Philippines: Assessing the State of Play, the new research paper examines the current state of fintech in the Philippines, the drivers of the coming digital transformation, the regulatory environment and the challenges ahead. In particular, the paper suggests that the Philippine fintech sector may soon be entering “a new phase of development” driven…

Manila-based insurtech startup Saphron has raised SGD1.35 million seed fund coming from fintech-focused VC fund Sage, and Talino Labs, a venture lab that supports companies engaged in digital transformation. Founded recently by solutions architect Francisco “Kiko” Reyes Jr, Saphron plans to use the fresh capital to address the financial inclusion gap in the Philippines by making the delivery of insurance radically accessible. The startup aims to enable clients develop technologies that transform consumer experiences. Sage and Talino Labs, in a joint statement, expressed optimism in Saphron’s capability “to launch transformative platforms that solve real needs, by way of intelligent, cutting…

Crypto-exchange platform Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) has raised an undisclosed amount of investment made by ConsenSys Ventures, the venture capital arm of US-based blockchain software firm ConsenSys. Founded in 2017 by Nichel Gaba, Krystian Kucharzyk, and Yang Yang Zhang, PDAX is a centralized trading platform that offers Filipinos an order book on which to trade digital assets in an open market for the first time. It is regulated by both the central bank (BSP) and securities regulator (SEC) in the Philippines. PDAX claims it will make ownership of digital assets in the Philippines more accessible because users can cash…

Singapore’s diversified group of companies Citystate Group made a seed investment in Ticket2Me, a blockchain-powered ticketing startup from the Philippines. The startup is now gearing for business expansion in Southeast Asia. Ticket2Me raised $350,000 in fresh capital and reportedly plans to use it to expand operations in major cities outside Metro Manila and Metro Cebu including overseas such as Hong Kong and Malaysia. Founded in 2017, Ticket2Me claims to be “Southeast Asia’s first blockchain-enabled ticketing marketplace” which also does event registration and audience analytics platform for organizers, ticket buyers and everyone else in between. It established a regional office in…

SendFriend, a Philippine-focused remittance market startup, has raised up to US$1.7 million capital in a venture round backed by blockchain giant Ripple also known as the cryptocurrency XRP. Other leading investors include the MIT Lab, Mastercard Foundation, Barclays, Techstars, Mahindra Finance, 2020 Ventures, and 8 Decimal Capital. Founded in 2017, SendFriend is headquartered in Greater New York City that is focused on providing remittance services to millions of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), these workers greatly contribute to the Philippines’ GDP growth by sending money to their families back home. The Philippines’ remittance and international money transfer industry is the third…

Bitcoin machines are on the rise worldwide. Currently, these devices are in 76 countries and now the Philippines have been added to the list. In the capital Manila, the first Bitcoin ATM was set up by UnionBank and Philippine’s central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The fact that these parties are behind setting up the Bitcoin ATM in Manila shows a trend of growing acceptance for cryptocurrencies in the Philippines. UnionBank justifies its commitment that it must adapt to the “changing needs and tastes of its customers”. Therefore, users of cryptocurrencies should be able to convert their digital currencies to…

Be it formal or casual, blockchain education is becoming a regular thing in the Philippines although its usage in different sectors, education in itself, has yet to be applied. AMBERLab or Ateneo-MediXserve Blockchain Education & Reasearch Lab defines blockchain as “an incorruptible distributed data-based technology and a peer-to-peer transaction system.” AMBERLab is one of the newly-formed organizations that seeks to advance blockchain education in the Philippines. In an exclusive interview with Fintech News Network, ConsenSys Solutions Philippines Lead, Aiai Garcia said there is a growing interest in blockchain education in the Philippines but formal blockchain education in the country is…

UnionBank of the Philippines has set its eyes on revolutionising the supply chain finance in the Philippines through its tie-up with tech giant IBM. IBM Philippines chief technologist Lope Doromal Jr disclosed that UnionBank and IBM are working on a blockchain-based solution. Doromal claimed the cloud-based application is one of the first projects of its kind in the Philippines outside of traditional banking, and is designed to transform trade finance transactions through a permissioned distributed ledger. “Built on the IBM Blockchain Platform, the supply chain finance solution from UnionBank will be available to all their customers and partners who will…

The Philippines’ “fintech city ” Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) has crafted a new set of rules in the acquisition and trading of cryptocurrency assets in the Philippines meant to effectively regulate and protect investors. CEZA disclosed it has approved the Digital Asset Token Offering (DATO) regulations that cover the acquisition of crypto assets, including utility and security tokens. Asia Blockchain and Crypto Association Appointed as a Self Regulatory Organisation While CEZA is the principal regulating authority under the new framework, it has designated the Asia Blockchain and Crypto Association (ABACA) as a self-regulatory organization to help implement and enforce…