The ASA Philippines Foundation, a non-profit prganisation, secured a US$20 million loan (over PHP 1 billion) from Citi Philippines to provide financial assistance to low-income women for entrepreneurial ventures in the country. This loan aims to support nearly 70,000 female entrepreneurs in the Philippines. ASA Philippines Foundation serves low-income women entrepreneurs and improves their livelihoods through microfinance and other social services. The institution serves over 2 million women entrepreneurs through more than 1,600 branches across 82 provinces in the Philippines. The foundation also provides an array of services to their clients including burial assistance, college and university scholarship programmes, disaster…

The world of financial services is in a state of constant change, with many traditional banks across the Asia Pacific, and indeed the world, now actively pursuing digital transformation strategies. For many of these organisations, it has been the impact of disruptive technologies and digital-only challengers that have compelled traditional financial institutions to actively begin to reinvent themselves from being bureaucratic, machine-like organisations into agile organisms which have people – employees and customers – at the centre. From machine-like bureaucracies to agile organisms For decades, traditional banks and financial institutions have operated as highly structured organisations, with rigid top-down hierarchies,…

BTI Payments, a subsidiary of Australian ATM and payment technology leader Banktech, recently partnered with Ayala Malls to launch their Pay&Go kiosks at Ayala establishments around the country. Strategically placed self-service kiosks in Ayala Malls in key urban areas will add to BTI’s growing network of 1,000+ kiosks nationwide. These innovative terminals allow Filipinos to easily make bill payments, purchase load and top-up digital wallets for financial accounts. They will no longer need to line up or travel far from their homes and offices, since the Pay&Go kiosks are now present in the malls they frequently visit. “The pandemic has…

Embedded banking platform Premise has partnered with French payments company Ingenico to provide digital payment solutions to cash-driven micro merchants across the Philippines. Premise will deploy Ingenico’s Android payment terminal to enable cashless payment methods, and link to its cloud-based platform to manage and deliver advanced payment and commerce services. Cash remains king in the Philippines, presenting a vast opportunity for fintech companies. In 2020, almost 25 million Filipinos used mobile wallets to make or accept online payments, according to Statista. Premise is described as a payment-led embedded finance platform providing payment terminals, financial services capabilities, and regulatory licenses. The…

A vast majority of the populations in the emerging markets of Southeast Asia, Latin America, and India are at the cusp of financial inclusion, thanks to the growing availability and adoption of digital lending services. The fintech-as-a-service market is predicted to grow to around US$ 949 Billion by 2028 due to the popularity of the alternative payment solution Buy Now Pay Later in these markets. With increased acceptability for digital lending in segments that had never been a part of the financial mainstream, organizations must enhance risk decisioning while ensuring faster turnaround on credit applications. Maintaining a high rate of…

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has increased its stake in Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) from 4.999% to 20.0%, providing an injection of PhP 27.126 billion (approximately US$ 460.78 million) in capital. SMBC’s strategic investment is said to be part of RCBC’s capital raising plan to support long-term sustainable asset growth and investments in technology, cybersecurity, and human resources. Both parties are working expeditiously towards the signing of definitive transaction documents and obtaining the relevant regulatory approvals. The transaction, when completed, is expected to result in opportunities for collaboration in areas such as corporate banking, sustainable finance, leasing, consumer lending,…

Singlife with Aviva was formed through the merger of Singlife and Aviva Singapore, bringing together one of the world’s oldest insurers with Singapore’s youngest homegrown financial services company. While the merger was officially completed in January 2022, it also presented the technology teams with the mammoth task of merging the digital-native operations at Singlife with legacy IT systems at Aviva. Ned Lowe, who was formerly the CTO at Singlife, is now leading this critical integration project for the combined company in his Head of Engineering role. When it comes to identity management for the newly combined company, it is a…

Digital asset technology provider METACO announced that UnionBank has gone live on its flagship platform to pilot the launch of crypto services for its clients. UnionBank leverages Harmonize, METACO’s digital asset custody and orchestration platform, as a fully managed service deployed in the cloud, enabling it to manage governance and operations for the pilot. The bank aims to enable clients to access digital currency custody and exchange services in their existing mobile banking app without opening or managing separate wallet services. Harmonize will act as the foundational orchestration platform to support UnionBank as it readies itself for wider rollouts of…

UnionDigital Bank, the digital banking subsidiary of Union Bank of the Philippines, today announced its partnership with cloud-native banking technology company Thought Machine and has deployed its core banking engine Vault Core. Thought Machine’s core technology has enabled UnionDigital Bank to build its products while offering flexibility, control, and ease of integration with other technology systems. Vault Core’s unique product-building framework has been instrumental for UnionDigital Bank to build, modify, and launch innovative new products. It is fully API-enabled and operates in real-time, allowing UnionDigital Bank Bank to have an up-to-date, accurate view of customer and ledger positions. The UnionDigital…

Digital financial operations platform NextPay enables independent medical professionals to transact with their patients and suppliers, as well as collect, send and manage their money. Doctors and other healthcare professionals can accept payments from QR codes, e-wallet, debit, credit, and bank transfers, and through single-use and reusable payment links after conducting tele-consultations. The funds collected from payment links and QR codes will be credited to their NextPay account, removing the need to manually share or divulge bank information to receive payments electronically. NextPay also relieves medical professionals of the burden of manually recording every transaction, and the app can also…

B2B ordering and store solution platform Growsari has partnered with Instapay to roll out a new feature to enable small physical retail stores to accept QR digital payments from their customers. Customers can pay by scanning the store’s QR code, and payments made will be instantly available in the merchant’s Growsari wallet where they can also access all transaction receipts and records. Merchants will then be able to use these funds for other transactions on Growsari such as ordering inventory, paying bills, and making wallet top-ups. Growsari’s field agents will also visit merchant stores frequently to facilitate instant top ups…

Fintech Alliance.PH, the country’s largest association of fintech and digital players, is hosting the second edition of Inclusion and Digital Transformation (INDX) Summit 2.0 on 22-23 November 2022 at the Enderun Tent, Taguig City. The Fintech Alliance membership collectively generates over 90 percent of digital-initiated transactions volume in the Philippines today. It was established in November 2017 and was launched at the BSP with the late BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr., championing inclusive digital finance and financial education. The INDX Summit is a flagship event of Fintech Alliance.PH has been running since 2019. It is an excellent learning and…

Between 2022 and 2027, the Philippines and Mexico are expected to see the fastest rise in neobanking adoption, owing to the current relatively low usage, supportive regulatory landscape and favorable demographics, according to a new analysis by Hungarian fraud prevention company Seon. In the Philippines, around 13% of the population currently use neobanks, but by 2027, that figure is set to soar 154% to 33% of the population, the analysis found, representing the biggest increase out of all countries studied. The Filipino central bank approved a digital banking framework in November 2020 with hopes to help improve financial inclusion and…

Philippines’ mobile wallet GCash is focusing on hyper localisation and partnerships with local government units (LGUs) to extend financial services to the countryside. To push its aim for financial inclusion, GCash will be using local dialects and employing more localised marketing activities. GCash is looking to make it easier for consumers to understand and embrace various financial offerings that previously were not available to them such as sending and receiving money, savings, insurance, investment, and lending These efforts would allow even tricycle drivers, wet market vendors, and local traders to accept GCash payments and avail of other financial services. GCash…

Netbank, a neobank that offers Banking-as-a-Service solutions, has partnered with APAC lender Zetl to provide financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines. Under this partnership, Zetl will identify ‘asset light’ SMEs with a regular and guaranteed income stream that are seeking funding while Netbank will provide loans to these companies. Filipino SMEs frequently encounter difficulties with day-to-day liquidity, primarily because of shortages in working capital. Zetl aims to close this gap by providing a regular source of funding by discounting the invoices issued by Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms and workforce agencies. Gus Poston, Chairman and Co-founder…

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno commended Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation’s (RCBC) development of the country’s first mobile human-assisted remote banking service that seeks to provide banking services to far-flung communities. The RCBC Moneybela Barangayan Banking is a physical-digital blended banking service that will make basic deposit account creation, bills payment, e-load, cash in or cashout, microinsurance, and telemedicine purchase accessible to previously unreached communities through sustainable e-tricycles. This service will be made available in 42,000 barangays nationwide where Filipinos will have access to banking services bundled with agent-assisted financial education. “This pioneering innovation complements the Philippine government’s thrust for digital transformation…

The number of Personal Equity and Retirement Account (PERA) contributors almost tripled two years after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) launched the Digital PERA in September 2020. The Digital PERA is an online one-stop shop where investors can open an account, browse various PERA products, monitor their accounts, and settle transactions via InstaPay and PESONet. BSP says PERA contributors increased to 4,892 on September 08 this year, from the 1,684 recorded two years prior. The number of PERA investors rose along with total PERA funds, as total PERA contributions increased by 106 percent to PHP 289.82 million as of…

Alibaba Cloud is hosting the Alibaba Cloud Summit Philippines 2022 on October 19th at the Grand Hyatt Manila, as it continues to provide customers with better services and greater value to accelerate business growth and digital transformation following the success of its Fintech Summit last June. The summit is a full-day event centered around cloud innovation that aims to provide insightful industry-driven content, keynote speeches and panels from the banking, fintech, Web3.0 and media industries by Alibaba Cloud experts and industry leaders from BSP, Fintech Alliance, GCash, ABS-CBN, UBX and more. What to expect at the Cloud Summit? The summit…

The Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has inked a deal for a merger with the Gokongwei-led Robinsons Bank Corporation (RBC). According to CNN Philippines, both entities are aiming to finalise the merger before the end of 2023 as they they seek the approval of the Philippine Competition Commission, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Through this merger agreement, the Gokongwei Group will take on a six percent stake in BPI worth approximately PHP 25.8 billion as well as a place on the bank’s board of directors held…

Across the globe, financial institutions are under increasing pressure to remain competitive in a rapidly changing financial services landscape. Challenger banks and fintechs are leveraging modern technology stacks and agile operating models to innovate at speed and build modern, customer-centric financial solutions that consumers have come to expect. Meanwhile, many incumbents remain in a holding pattern, running legacy core platforms which, apart from being expensive and time consuming to maintain, can seriously hamper their ability to remain competitive. And it’s not only pressure from within the financial services industry causing sleepless nights for many incumbents; tech giants with seriously deep…