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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider GCash: Digital banking, no silver bullet

GCash: Digital banking, no silver bullet

Published May 13, 2022 02:40 pm

Local finance app GCash is unfazed over its closest competitor Paymaya's move to open a digital bank.

“We don't believe that having a digital banking license is a silver bullet or magic," GCash President and CEO Martha Sazon maintained.

"It's not like a signboard that you just turn on then expect everyone to come in. There's real work to acquire users and educate them on more complex financial services,” she explained

Anyway, at present, one in every five banked Filipinos has a GSave account, the executive pointed out.

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GSave was created by GCash and CIMB Bank, one of Southeast Asia’s largest banks, to address the population's need for more accessible financial services.

GSave is also set to onboard the Bank of the Philippine Islands to give consumers more savings and financial product choices.

Furthermore, GCash has partnered with ATRAM, the leading independent asset manager in the Philippines, for its GInvest investment solutions.

Now, 77 percent of the country’s Unit Investment Trust Fund (UITF) accounts are on GInvest.

GCash also created an insurance marketplace with GInsure, where customers can avail of over 24 different traditional life and non-life insurance policies from some of the country's biggest insurance companies.

Today, 1 out of 3 traditional life insurance policies in the Philippines are purchased from GInsure.

“We have partnered with the most innovative and the biggest institutions– CIMB, BPI, ATRAM– and various insurance companies," Sazon reiterated.

"So while others are just about to start providing financial services, one-third of our GCash user base are already subscribed to at least one of our financial services products.”

On the cryptocurrency front, GCash is already available as a mode of payment across several exchanges such as Binance, Philippine Digital Assets Exchange (PDAX), and Paxfulmake, with many more to be added soon.

This makes it more convenient for users to pay for their crypto transactions.

“We're already offering up payment options for various crypto sites. And I think we lead that space," according to Sazon.

"In terms of offering crypto inside our app, we're making sure that the services we provide within the crypto space are the relevant ones and at a rate that is reasonable. We are working on it, and we'll be able to offer what we think is what the consumers are really looking for.”

GCash is a portfolio company under 917Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom Inc.

Related Tags

digital banking GCash GSave Globe Telecom
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