Ayannah a Filipino fintech startup that provides affordable and accessible digital financial services will be providing its open banking and omnichannel distribution platform to Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC)’s mobile app Diskartech. With this partnership, Diskartech users will be able to cash in through thousands of Ayannah-enabled outlets nationwide. Ayannah gives users access to its global network of services that include e-commerce, remittance, and electronic distribution and payment, including online and mobile selling. “We are excited to partner with RCBC to make Diskartech even more accessible to our kababayans all over the country. With our growing network of transaction agents,…

AirAsia announced its partnership with GCash to provide its guests with a fast and convenient option to pay for their flights and other add-ons when booking through its app and website. Guests can now make secure mobile payments online by proceeding to AirAsia’s payment page where they can pay via GCash through the ‘Wallet’ tab. GCash can also be used to make payments for AirAsia shop purchases via the app. Guests can also use their GCash e-wallets for cashless transactions at AirAsia check-in counters nationwide when paying for additional baggage, meals, and other flight add-ons while checking in. Guests simply…

Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK), has digital only bank to secure a license under Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s newly revised digital banking framework. OFBank was issued a digital banking license on March 25 after being approved for the first phase of BSP’s three-stage licensing framework on the establishment of new digital banks. OFBank’s license differs from other digital-only banks or neobanks who are operating under a rural banking license which adhere to a different set of rules. Following that, OFBank was able to commence its banking operations in…

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) considers the digital banking framework as a key building block in promoting financial inclusion. The framework aims to enable a regulatory environment that fosters responsible innovation, promotes cyber resilience, and expand the digitalisation of the financial sector. Issued in December last year, the BSP’s “Guidelines on Establishment of Digital Banks” defines a digital bank as a financial entity, categorised as a bank, offering financial products and services that are processed end-to-end through a digital platform or electronic channels with no physical branch offering financial products and services. Nonetheless, digital banks are expected to have…

Mobile money wallet GCash is transitioning from a micro-lending innovation to being a full digital lending facility through the GCredit feature that is supported by CIMB Philippines. CIMB Philippines will now officially power GCredit, as the bank employs its credit evaluation and analytics expertise as well as its funding capabilities for GCash customers. Housed inside the GCash app, GCredit is a digital micro-lending service in the Philippines, where qualified customers can purchase goods, services, and pay their bills in-store or online with over 17,500 partner merchants nationwide. GCash said in a statement that this will help GCredit to reach more…

The Supreme Court of the Philippines (SC)  signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) for the bank to develop an ePayment solution for the Judiciary. The Judiciary ePayment Solution will involve an application designed to provide the courts the options to receive fees and payments digitally from litigants, their counsels, and representatives in a safe, secure, real-time, 24/7 basis from anywhere at their convenience. Led by Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta during the signing of the MOA, the Project will be greatly beneficial to the courts and the general public as it will streamline the…

Southeast Asian digital-only bank Tonik has launched as the first neobank in the Philippines. Tonik is supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) while its deposits are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC). Tonik’s cloud-based solution is powered by global financial technology leaders Mastercard, Finastra, and Amazon Web Services. The neobank said in a statement that customers can open fully functional banking account in under 5 minutes within the Tonik app with their ID and selfie. Tonik account can be topped up through interbank transfers, debit cards, or cash transactions at close to 10,000 retail agents across…

Several Philippines agencies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the British Embassy of Manila for the country’s participation in UK’s Prosperity Fund for the ASEAN Economic Reform Programme and ASEAN Low Carbon Energy Programme. The MOU formalises the cooperation activities between the Philippines and the UK in the areas of capital market development, fintech development, green finance, and accounting standards. The local agencies that signed the MoU were Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Department of Finance, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Insurance Commission. With the Finance Department in the lead and the other entities acting as co-lead…

Members of Fintech Alliance.ph issued a joint statement strongly urging the public, industry stakeholders, and the government to join hands in fighting against fraudulent and criminal financial transactions online. With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the digital shift in financial transactions and the technology becoming widely available for everyone, many unscrupulous groups and individuals are finding ways to target unsuspecting users. According to global think tank Cybersecurity Ventures, the impact of cybercrime is expected to reach $ 6 trillion in 2021 and rise to $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. In the Philippines, various cybercrime incidents have been reported throughout the pandemic.…

Online payment gateway JazzyPay has teamed up with Union Bank of the Philippines to provide cashless payment solutions for SMEs and local businesses. With the partnership, JazzyPay customers can now settle payments using their UnionBank accounts. In turn, UnionBank online users can now pay for local and essential businesses registered with JazzyPay. JazzyPay, an online payment gateway system that allows businesses of all types and sizes to accept cashless payments across credit and debit cards, e-wallets, online baking, and over-the-counter cash deposits. Currently, onboarded merchants are able to accept payments through 27 payment methods, now including UnionBank. Aside from being…

A recent survey by global analytics software firm FICO has revealed that 56 percent of Filipino consumers prefer to use digital channels to engage with their bank during financial hardship. The poll was conducted in December 2020, during the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrates the willingness of consumers to embrace digital banking and the opportunities that exist for banks to further develop their offering. FICO’s Advancing New Experiences in Digital Banking survey was done using an online and quantitative poll of 5,000 consumers across ten countries and regions, carried out on behalf of FICO by an independent research…

Experian, a consumer financial data service provider, has partnered with FinScore, an alternative credit scoring provider, to help financial institutions reduce high default rates and prevent fraudulent activity, whilst simultaneously bridging the financial inclusion gap for unbanked individuals in the country. Banks and financial institutions that utilise the telco scoring product, Experian PowerScore, will be able to vet the unbanked population and gain access to more relevant financial products and services that they need. FinScore’s scoring models is based on telco data with over four hundred telco variables as data and voice usage, top-up patterns, location, and SIM age, among…

With many regulators in the Southeast Asian region making their moves towards digital banks, it’s not hard to see why financial institutions within the region are scrambling to put out their own take on a concept that is deemed as banking’s future. One of such banks is UNObank, operated by Singapore-owned DigiBankASIA. UNObank’s claim to fame is the “one” concept, UNO, which only requires one full-suite app that handles all its functions, one card for all banking activities, and even approves credit within one minute. In a webinar session titled “How to Build a Digital Bank from Scratch” the Fintech…

Open banking is at the core of enabling innovation within the financial sector, while the private sector often rolls out its own initiatives, it is important for regulators to have a cohesive strategy for open banking to truly thrive. What is the open baking strategy in the Philippines? The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippines’ central bank, is laying down the foundations for open banking, releasing the first version of the draft Circular on Open Finance, a proposed framework to implement open banking in the country. In the draft circular, released in December 2020, the BSP is proposing the…

The Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched its online payment system for companies to pay their registration fees. The newly developed SEC Payment Portal is a web-based system that allows for the payment of registrations, transaction fees, and penalties using debit and credit cards, digital wallets and other cashless payment options. To make their payments, clients 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. To ensure payments made through the SEC Payment Portal are secure, clients will receive a one-time pin to…

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has established the Payments and Currency Management Sector (PCMS) which is tasked to manage the interplay of physical currency and digital money in its push to establish a robust digital payments ecosystem. The PCMS unit will be headed by the newly appointed deputy governor Mamerto E. Tangonan who is a digital finance services and inclusive finance expert. He leads PCMS in maintaining the safety and integrity of the Philippine currency, as well as ensuring a well-functioning payments and cash ecosystem that fosters long-term economic growth. The new sector which consolidates existing currency and payment…

Indonesian payment gateway Xendit and FDFC, the fintech company behind the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) app BillEase, announced the launch of their joint PayLater solution to help merchants offer cardless payment installments in the Philippines. The partnership with BillEase allows merchants to connect to Xendit’s API and enable BillEase’s payment products. By offering BillEase at checkout, merchants can give their customers the option to split the cost of their purchases into installments either monthly or bi-weekly with no hidden fees. Xendit merchants that offer BillEase can allow customers to pay for their purchases online on monthly installments and pay…

ErudiFi, a tech-enabled company providing access to affordable education financing in Southeast Asia, announced the close of a US$5 million Series A funding round co-led by Monk’s Hill Ventures and Qualgro. The company plans to scale ErudiFi’s education financing services to deepen its footprint in existing markets in Indonesia and the Philippines with educational institution partners, and invest in product innovation to deepen ErudiFi’s engagement and relationship with students and schools. ErudiFi added that the funding will also be used to make key hires across product and engineering, marketing and operations, business development, and data functions. With its “Study Now,…

Tyme, a multi-country digital banking group headquartered in Singapore, announced its US$110 million Series B capital raise, bringing foreign investment into South Africa for TymeBank and laying the foundation for Tyme’s expansion across ASEAN starting with the Philippines. The new investors in Tyme are Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners, and the Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings of the Philippines. Apis is a private equity asset manager that supports growth-stage financial services and financial infrastructure businesses. Meanwhile, the Gokongwei family owns and operates a conglomerate in the Philippines, JG Summit Holdings, through which they have…

Online lending platform Cashalo announced that it had discovered a potential data breach but reassured its users that no customer accounts or passwords were compromised. The company said that on 18 February 2021, its cybersecurity team discovered a potential data security incident involving a Cashalo-only database archive where an individual claimed to be in possession of a Cashalo customer database taken from a non production system used by the company. This incident resulted in unauthorised access to a database archive that contained some personal data of Cashalo customers, including some combination of usernames, email, phone numbers, device ID, and encrypted…