Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation’s (RCBC) mass-market super app DiskarTech recently launched its new streamlined onboarding process and expanded the number of acceptable IDs for faster account verification. From an original set of seven acceptable IDs required for the app’s digital savings account creation through electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) process, DiskarTech will now accept a total of 18 IDs. This aims to facilitate a more convenient account registration and verification on the part of its users. Acceptable IDs for eKYC now include the following: Passport, Driver’s License, Unified Multipurpose ID (UMID), Social Security System (SSS) ID, Professional Regulations Commission (PRC)…

Coming off from completing its fresh venture funding, Plentina, a fintech app that allows Filipinos to purchase their goods and services through their favorite merchants and pay later on installments, launches its latest partnership with the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, Shopee. Filipinos can download the Plentina app and avail of loans for vouchers to purchase items on the Shopee app, the country’s ultimate online shopping destination. Plentina is proud to offer loans that have 0% interest and flat service and late fees. “As the holiday season approaches, we are very excited to offer Plentina’s fast and…

Fintech Alliance.ph, a coalition of fintech and digital companies, has tagged a proposed bill in the House of Representatives to tax electronic transactions as a major stumbling block to the digital transformation of the country. The House Bill 6765 or the Digital Economy Taxation Act of of 2020, authored by House of Representatives ways and means committee chairman Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, shall amend the National Internal Revenue Code “to better capture value created into the tax system”. Key provisions in the measure include “network orchestrators” that link customers to service providers and leasers becoming withholding agents for income taxes,…

Philippines digital wallet PayMaya is accelerating the rollout of the QR Ph P2M (person-to-merchant) payment facility across its enterprise partners. QR Ph P2M is the national QR standard for merchant payments that was fully launched by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) this October. PayMaya was among the first financial technology company to adopt QR Ph P2M when the standard was first introduced by BSP in April this year. Since then, the company has rolled out over 160,000 QR Ph P2M acceptance points across its enterprise base. This number includes both online and on-ground touchpoints for all types of merchants,…

Mynt, the holding company of Globe’s fintech arm managing the GCash e-wallet, has raised over US$300 million in funding, valuing the company at over US$2 billion. The company was the only Philippines startup that made it onto Credit Suisse’s list of 35 unicorns in Southeast Asia. The investment round was led by global investment giant Warburg Pincus, New York-based venture capital firm Insight Partners, and Bow Wave Capital, one of Mynt’s existing investors. The round also includes participation from Itai Tsiddon and Amplo Ventures as well as capital from Globe and Ayala. With the news funds, Mynt will be expanding…

CIMB Bank Philippines and Lalamove partnered up to provide easy credit access to hundreds of thousands of partner drivers through the bank’s new Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) offering, REVI Credit. This collaboration will enable Lalamove partner drivers to get easy access to credit for their day-to-day needs and emergencies with a revolving credit line of up to PHP 250,000. Through REVI Credit, qualified Lalamove partner drivers are given more flexibility over how to access, as well as use, the credit given to them. They can easily pay for bills and, soon, online goods upfront on credit and pay over…

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) now supports Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) full roll out of the Person-to-Merchant (P2M) payment option for the national quick response standard, QR Ph. RCBC is one of the first participating banks and electronic money issuers during the preliminary rollout of QR Ph P2M following the pilot P2P rollout that was held last April. BSP and the Philippine Payments Management, Inc. (PMMI) launched QR Ph P2M, which expands its use case to include more banks and electronic money issuers (EMI). Users only need to scan the QR code using their mobile banking or e-wallet app…

Financial Software and Systems (FSS), a global provider of integrated payment products and a payments processor, announced a partnership with BancNet, a Philippines-based interbank network connecting the ATM networks of local and offshore banks. FSS’ Business Support Suite enables BancNet to bring efficiencies of speed and scale to automate billing, as well as settlement for all switched transactions among participants. The suite is a full stack offering which consolidates critical operations, such as partner management, fees computation, partner settlement, billing and dispute management, for a wide set of transactions, onto a single platform. As a result, BancNet will be able…

The Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation’s (RCBC) financial inclusion super app DiskarTech has partnered with digital payments solution platform Digipay. Digipay provides small businesses with a platform to grow their income through a network of partners that includes sari-sari stores, internet cafes, pawnshops, mobile phone stores, and appliance stores. By partnering with Digipay, DiskarTech users can access the platform’s wide network of over 21,500 partner agents and establishments nationwide that can be used for cash-in transactions. Mark Frondoso, President and Chairman of Digipay said, “A DiskarTech—Digipay tandem will be able to connect an extensive unbanked consumer base and an established small…

Mynt, the holding company of Globe’s fintech arm managing the GCash e-wallet, is the lone Philippines startup that made it onto Credit Suisse’s list of 35 unicorns in Southeast Asia. Credit Suisse’s list highlights technology companies in several industries and countries in the sub-region that are valued at over US$1 billion or wherein the last funding round was at least US$800 million and backed by strong business momentum. The e-wallet was included in the “ASEAN Unicorns, Scaling New Heights” list thanks to ABS-CBN News’ report that Mynt’s valuation was close to US$1 billion as of 2021. Earlier this year, Mynt…

Philippines digital wallet PayMaya has teamed up with Singaporean insurtech bolttech to give Filipinos easier access to affordable microinsurance and services products. Through the collaboration, PayMaya’s customers can benefit from relevant and easy-to-understand coverage with the in-app Protect feature, powered by bolttech’s insurance exchange platform. PayMaya has been working with bolttech to develop more flexible ‘sachet-sized’ insurance and services products better suited to the country’s predominantly young and underserved market. The Protect feature also offers customers more flexibility, giving them more choices and better control over their finances as the products has a subscription model. PayMaya said that customers can…

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has fully rolled out the QR Ph Person-to-Merchant (P2M) payment facility with the Philippine Payments Management, Inc. (PPMI). QR Ph P2M simplifies digital payments made by customers to merchants, allows customers to transact with a wider range of businesses. QR Ph is the national QR code which uses the Quick Response technology and code scanning for payments. It benefits both customers and merchants through faster, easier, and cheaper payment options with greater convenience and security. P2M covers a broad consumer base that includes individuals, as well as MSMEs, which comprise over 98 percent of registered…

Philippines rural bank Cantilan Bank (CANBNK) partnered the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) to launch its new mobile banking application “iCAN”. AFIN is a not-for-profit entity known for its open banking platform APIX and was established in 2018 by the ASEAN Bankers Association (ABA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Through the use of features and sandboxes available on the APIX platform, along with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), IFC, and Geniusto, CANBNK has officially launched the app. The app aims to deliver safe and…

The Governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Benjamin E. Diokno has a vision of transforming the Philippines into a digital-heavy and cash-light society to help achieve inclusive growth. The vision, which he shared during an online forum of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), also includes a target of ensuring 50% or half of the transactions should be digital by 2023 and 70% of Filipino adults should have formal bank accounts by 2023. Ultimately, Diokno aims to transition the economy to a cash-light environment by 2025 and eventually to a coin-less and cash-less society. Undoubtedly, some challenges are standing…

Changing consumer expectations and a fast-evolving banking landscape are posing challenges for incumbents to keep up. Despite the realization that digital banking is the way forward, many Filipino banks are struggling to develop and implement innovative solutions, citing outdated legacy systems and uncertainty on how to partner with fintech companies as key challenges, a new research conducted by Forrester Consulting for Backbase found. Out of 450 top financial services executives in Asia-Pacific (APAC) surveyed in February/March 2021, 70% of Filipino respondents said keeping pace with customer expectations and remaining both profitable and relevant were critical challenges, a figure that’s above…

Philippines digital and financial services firm Voyager Innovations has appointed seasoned banker Angelo Madrid as President of Maya Bank, its digital banking arm that will be operated by its fintech spin-off PayMaya. The appointment comes on the heels of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) granting a digital banking license to Maya Bank, making it one of the seven recipients under the new digital banking category. Madrid brings over 15 years of experience across banking, fintech, microfinance, and law. Before joining Maya Bank, he served as the Country Manager of Tala, a US based fintech lending startup serving unbanked customers…

Philippines’ payments firm Dragonpay announced that it has partnered with TripleA to roll out crypto payments to thousands of merchants in the country. With the low penetration of credit cards and banking services in the Philippines, Dragonpay aims to bridge the gap between e-commerce businesses and customers by providing alternative online payment methods. Dragonpay’s payment gateway enables customers the flexibility of making payments online or over the counter at authorised payment centers after they have purchased goods and services with the merchants and retailers. “Now that crypto is transforming the e-commerce space, we have to be ready for it. Being…

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the payment systems industry are set to rollout an array of initiatives that are expected to further advance payments digitalization and financial inclusion in the country. “The BSP will continue to work with the Philippine Payments Management, Inc. (PPMI) to ensure that every Filipino can have meaningful participation in an increasingly digital Philippine economy,” said BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno during a recent PPMI meeting. Run by payment industry participants, the PPMI is a self-governing body that is accredited by the BSP as the country’s payment system management body. One of its key…

Three in five banks believe they will cease to exist within five to ten years unless they change their business models, according to a new global research report “Evolve or be extinct” from the Financial Times Focus (FT Focus) and SaaS cloud banking platform Mambu. The report also identified that two in three believe they will lose market share in just two years if they fail to transform digitally. Concerningly, banks across Asia Pacific appear to be lagging behind the rest of the world, with less than one third of banks in the region describing their digital transformation strategies as…

The Fintech Alliance.PH, the National Privacy Commission (NPC) and various industry players have joined forces in condemning the insidious practice of illegal and irresponsible data harvesting of some online lending applications. Several online lending platforms have been found to be exploiting users’ data by using unnecessary app permissions in order to access and store excessive amounts of its users’ private information without any justifiable reason. This is in violation of the Data Privacy Act of 2012, which protects and secures the privacy of every personal information and information in communications system in order to ensure free flow of information that…