Singapore-based Inypay announced that it will be launching its neobank, which has been in development for over 6 months, in Q2 2023. The key focus of Inypay is sustainable fintech. In its mission to improve the lives of the underserved communities in Southeast Asia, they aim to achieve quality education through education credit, zero hunger through food credit, and better health and well being through medical credit. Inypay will be offering micro-lending, remittances, domestic payments, e-wallets, personalised and communal savings as well as micro-insurance in Southeast Asia. The company’s 35-people team in Singapore and India is building a digital bank…

HitPay, a Singapore-based payment platform for SMEs, has received a license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to be a registered Operator of Payment System (OPS). With HitPay, SMEs can integrate a full suite of payment options all on a single platform, set up no-code business tools to accept payments, and access the widest range of online integrations in the Philippines. HitPay’s payment gateway in the Philippines includes plug-and-play payment methods including InstaPay QR PH, PESONet, GrabPay, Billease, over-the-counter payments, cards, e-wallets, and online bank transfers. The company has also submitted a major payment institution license application to the…

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are innovative, agile and drive competition. However, they’re often shuffled to the back of the line when it comes to accessing credit. Lending to SMEs can be risky and time-consuming. Traditional financial institutions often require paperwork-heavy application processes and may find it difficult to execute credit risk decisioning without human intervention. Forty-four percent of SMEs need funding immediately to meet operating expenses, and 56% look to credit to grow their business. But when accessing credit quickly can mean the difference between a business flourishing or floundering, what are the options? Increasingly, disruptive lenders, including fintechs…

Fintech Alliance.PH, the country’s largest association of fintech and digital players, announced that it has appointed Pru Life UK, President and Chief Executive Officer Eng Teng Wong as the Chairman of its insurtech committee. Wong will lead Fintech Alliance.PH’s role in engaging, building and expanding a sustainable digital finance ecosystem. His leadership also aims to push online and digital platforms as a tool to raise awareness about insurance protection and make it more accessible to Filipinos. “As the current Insurtech Committee Chairman of the Fintech Alliance Philippines, I am excited to spearhead discussions and concerted initiatives that leverage mobile and…

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has requested feedback from financial institutions and third-party providers for the Open Finance Pilot in the country. The regulator aims to strengthen the development of open finance technical and operational standards and arrangements through this. The PH Open Finance Pilot is a collaborative undertaking of financial institutions and third-party providers, participating on a voluntary basis, to explore the use of Application Programming Interface (API) technologies in the delivery of financial products and services responsive to the needs of customers. BSP said in a statement that it recognises that the “PH Open Finance Pilot is an…

Venom Ventures Fund, a Web3 and blockchain innovation fund managed by Abu Dhabi-based investment fund manager Iceberg Capital Limited, has announced a strategic partnership with Everscale, a premier blockchain that aims to solve the scalability issues bogging down the Web3 industry. Venom Ventures Fund has committed a $5 million investment in Everscale to help it further expand its development teams and boost the number of projects. The investment will be in stages, based on the progress and cooperation indicators. Everscale has been diligently working on expanding its reach and integrating its technology solutions in Asian countries over the past two…

Paymongo announced the appointment of Jojo Malolos as the new President and CEO of PayMongo, effective February 1, 2023. As part of this appointment, Isabel Ridad will be stepping down as Interim CEO and will be leaving the company as she pursues her own venture. Isabel was appointed in November 2022 as the interim CEO, when the company’s founder Francis Plaza was forced to resign amidst allegations of harrasment. Jojo previously served as President and CEO of DAVI and JG DEV, the data analytics and venture arm of the Gokongwei Group, respectively. He is co-founder and Chairman of GoTyme Bank,…

Fintech startup Salmon announced that it has launched its first offering in the Philippines which is a point-of-sale (POS) loan product. Filipinos will be able to shop for a variety of home products while deferring payment for their purchases over several monthly installments. According to Salmon, it has over 30 major outlets as partner merchants who will receive the entirety of their sale proceeds upfront. Salmon provides its merchants with a dedicated portal that it had developed to assist them in monitoring and managing their sales. Based in the Philippines, the company was founded in July 2022 by Russian digital bank…

Consumer finance app BillEase has partnered with Ant Group’s Alipay+ to enable the buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment option for Filipinos when the shop at global brands online. BillEase’s over 2,000 merchant partners can now offer their shoppers three card-free installment options at checkout with interest rates between 0% or 3.49 percent. Aside from shopping, the BillEase app can be used for e-wallet top-ups, gaming credits, mobile load purchases, and bills payment. Launched in 2020, Alipay+ provides global cross-border mobile payment solutions which enable merchants, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to better serve mobile-savvy consumers. To date, Alipay+…

Newly launched Filipino digital bank GoTyme Bank has partnered with cloud banking platform Mambu to roll out new products and services in the coming months. Singapore-based Tyme Group has had a long-standing relationship with Mambu which powered South Africa’s TymeBank to transition into a fully-fledged digital bank. In a similar approach to its South African digital bank, GoTyme offers digital banking services via kiosks set up in retail outlets belonging to Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc under the Gokongwei Group. GoTyme Bank said that it plans to have 348 kiosks across the country in operation by the end of 2023. Nate…

The Asia-Pacific financial sector is undergoing rapid transformation. Consumers’ expectations have significantly increased as a result of the digital revolution and the emergence from the Covid-19 pandemic. That was why banking software company Temenos organised a series of industry events across Asia Pacific to engage global and regional banks, fintechs as well as hyperscalers to gain insights on how the banking industry should both respond and reposition itself to navigate an evolving banking landscape more effectively. More than 1,100 combined attendees from the industry gathered across 11 cities – Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Taipei, Jakarta, Singapore, Hanoi, Bangkok, Hong Kong,…

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it will be making a complete shift towards digital payments by 1 February 2023. The public will have to use the eSPAYSEC that was launched in March last year to make payment of fees and penalties to the commission. To make a payment, users will need to enter the reference number provided in the Payment Assessment Form issued by the SEC, select a payment option, then provide the required information. Once the payment goes through, the system will generate an electronic official receipt, which they will likewise receive through email. The public may…

Direct Agent 5 (DA5), a provider of remittance and forex services, has secured three licenses from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Among them are approvals to operate as a Non-Bank Electronic Money Issuer (EMI), Virtual Assets Service Provider (VASP), and Type A Advanced Electronic Payment and Financial Services (EPFS). In addition to the newly acquired licenses, it already operates as a remittance and transfer company through its existing Remittance Agent License (RA) and Money Changing / Foreign Exchange Dealing License (MC/FXD) from the BSP. DA5 said that it is now the only Money Service Business (MSB) to offer remittances,…

Philippines’ UNO Digital Bank announced that it has formed a partnership with AI-powered credit scoring platform Trusting Social. Through this partnership, UNO will leverage Trusting Social’s expertise for customer onboarding solutions including credit scoring. Trusting Social’s big data scoring technology has the capacity to use telco data—which is crucial for the Philippine market that has around 157 million prepaid mobile subscribers—to provide accurate credit risk profile assessment, including unbanked customers. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) had already issued a Certificate of Authority to UNO in August this year, allowing the digital bank to pursue full operations. In line with…

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has granted Coins.ph, a Philippines’ digital wallet provider and crypto exchange platform, an advanced Electronic Payment and Financial Services (EPFS) license covering the operation of the Coins Pro exchange. According to a statement by Coins, it is the first Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) to be granted a Type A EPFS license, which is traditionally reserved for banks. Coins Pro is a professional-grade order book exchange that is now available to all of its users. They can buy and sell digital currencies at larger volumes and for lower fees. Additionally, users can also place…

Coins.ph, a Philippines’ digital wallet provider and crypto exchange platform, has launched a new QR payment feature that will allow its users to make convenient cashless payments to merchants and businesses throughout the country. Users can simply click “Pay with QR” within the Coins app, scan the QR code displayed by a participating merchant, and enter the payment amount to complete their transaction instantly. Pay with QR is compatible with QR Ph, the QR payment standard for the Philippines developed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The QR Ph system will allow merchants and small business owners to display…

Fintech Alliance.PH had recently hosted the second edition of Inclusion and Digital Transformation (INDX) Summit on 22-23 November 2022 at the Enderun Tent in McKinley Hill, Taguig City. The event was attended by hundreds of industry practitioners involved in finance and technology locally and internationally, and was participated by some of the country’s highly-esteemed regulators, government officials, economic policy-makers, thought leaders, and members of the diplomatic corps. The goal of the INDX Summit 2.0 was to discuss challenges concerning the digital divide between standards and regulations in e-commerce, health, agriculture, education, MSMEs, open banking, insurance, AI, and the new technologies…

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) has rolled out its NegosyanTech digital payments service to enable micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to accept any payments from banks and e-wallets through its interoperable QRph code. The “RCBC NegosyanTech Lahat Pwede QRph” was launched in partnership with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). The initiative aims to further promote financial inclusion in regional communities through interoperable digital payments from the grassroots such as public markets, sari-sari-stores, and local transportation hubs. Through the interoperable QRph, market vendors, tricycle drivers, and small business owners…

Union Bank of Philippines (UnionBank) announced its entrance into the The Sandbox metaverse, a decentralised gaming virtual world and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, by leveraging Hex Trust’s digital asset custody services. Since March 2021, Hex Trust has been a licensed digital asset custodian to support NFTs, including those that provide access to metaversal platforms such as The Sandbox. Through this move, UnionBank aims to support the growth of the Filipino Web3 community and artists through activities in the metaverse. The process is said to be in full compliance with the regulations by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). “The…

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno calls for the continued efforts of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ramp up investor protection in the Philippines. During a keynote at the SEC’s 86th Anniversary and Recognition Ceremony, Secretary Diokno acknowledged the role the SEC plays in the development and modernisation of the country’s financial markets. He also noted how the SEC has built a competitive and secure business environment critical for capital formation, consistent with the agency’s mandate as the enforcer of standards for corporate governance and protector of the investing public. SEC’s efforts to keep the country’s capital market and corporate…