Metrobank has long been a financial institution that champions learning, and this time, it’s teaching Filipinos the art of starting early. In a recent event, the bank invited media guests to the art of furoshiki—the Japanese tradition of gift-wrapping—where every fold, every knot, and every...
Despite the vulnerability of Filipino households to socioeconomic shocks and natural disasters, their access to financial services remains a laggard compared to the Philippines’ regional and income-level peers, the 2025 Global Findex Database of the World Bank showed. According to the World...
Astra Tech (Astra), MENA’s leading consumer technology holding group based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), signed Tuesday, July 18, a share purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire a 90 percent stake in Y Finance, a licensed financing company operating in the Philippines, as it commits to develop...
FROM THE MARGINS March is Women’s Month. Since 1988, the Philippines has dedicated March to celebrating women’s achievements and raising awareness about domestic violence, discrimination, and other issues facing Filipino women. March 8 is also International Women’s Day. The Philippines holds...
TECH4GOOD Monchito Ibrahim The rapid digitalization of everything we do today is fast changing the country's financial inclusion landscape. Although the share of the unbanked population in the country is still one of the highest in the Asia Pacific region according to Statista research, the...
#MINDANAO John Tria In last week’s column I enjoined you all to review 2022 as we take a look ahead to 2023. Indeed the lessons we have learned from post pandemic recovery practices to the responses to the challenges posed by geopolitical realities such as the Ukraine conflict and climate related...
FROM THE MARGINS Last week, House Speaker Martin Romuldez vowed to pass by December the administration’s priority bills, including the Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA), the last tranche of the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program. The PIFITA is laudable...
PayMaya and Maya Bank officers, led by PayMaya Philippines Group President and Maya Co-Founder, Shailesh Baidwan (10 th from the left); PayMaya Philippines COO, Khurram Malik (11 th from the left); and Maya Business Head, Mar Lazaro (9 th from the left); recognized key partners that have championed...
FROM THE MARGINS Once touted as something of a miracle cure for global poverty, microfinance used to be a high-profile and generously-funded development intervention. In recent years, however, support for the sector has dwindled, with development finance institutions moving on to new disruptive...
FROM THE MARGINS JAIME ARISTOTLE B. ALIP, PHD Putting agriculture at the forefront of our development agenda is a good move on the part of President Marcos. His assumption of the post of Agriculture Secretary is an affirmation of the promise made during his presidential campaign to lower the price...
Insular Life (InLife) and leading mobile wallet GCash have vowed to make financial services more accessible to all Filipinos, especially for the unbanked and underbanked. During the formal launch of their partnership on Wednesday, March 9, the local insurer and the largest FinTech platform in the...
Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation’s (RCBC) unique innovations and synergized collaborations have successfully pushed financial inclusion as it notes a five-digit growth in both transaction volume and value, through its digital platforms as of end-2021. DiskarTech, touted as the...
