Technology NEWS

Global fintech platform TALA welcomes its new General Manager Donald Evangelista whose expertise in data-driven innovation, business strategy, and digital transformation will be integral to the company’s mission of bringing financial freedom and inclusivity to more Filipinos, specifically the underbanked

Bayad continues to trailblaze the fintech industry being the trusted brand in the outsourced payment collection service in the Philippines. Having aggregated a multitude of billers that are now being used by more than 100,000 physical touchpoints and leading digital and mobile platforms across the country, the company has enhanced and intensified its cybersecurity initiatives to maintain its robust system.

To curb possible misuse of mobile wallets for illegal vote-buying in the May 9, 2022 elections, fintech companies pledged to implement safeguards in user onboarding and account verification processes to allow transactions to be traced easily.

As demand for digital financial solutions skyrocketed in the pandemic, local open finance platform UBX quintupled its revenues last year and expects to sustain its growth momentum in 2022.

More than 71% of Filipinos remain unbanked and have zero access to financial services, based on the 2019 survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). This unbanked sector includes aspiring entrepreneurs and MSMEs resulting in their inability to secure funding and support to expand their businesses. Emerging solutions are Open Finance and the API (application program interface) economy, innovations that can provide financial access to the underserved while protecting consumer data, confidentiality, and financing.

Have you ever heard of ‘financial stress?’ According to experts, this condition refers to that state of anxiety or emotional tension related to money, debt, and expenses. Money, in fact, is one of the most universal sources of stress.

The Open Finance system and the comprehensive finance API platform stand to revolutionize the growth of the MSMEs in the Asia-Pacific region, specifically the Philippines. Its forecasted trajectory of growth can be instrumental to finally providing financial access to the underserved and unrepresented market, which mainly consists of the millions of unbanked Filipinos. Brankas, Southeast Asia’s leading Open Finance technology company and which has an office in the NCR, has positioned itself to accelerate this significant industry growth through the close of its US$20m Series B investment round led by Insignia Ventures Partners with participation from Visa and existing investors Beenext and Integra Partners.

Government trained its sights last week on financial technology (or ‘fintech’) companies as the Secretary of Finance instructed the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ensure that these are properly regulated and taxed while encouraging the sector’s growth and innovation.

The COVID-19 crisis has turned the Philippine economy into a gig economy, with more and more people opting for or even forced to seek jobs online. However, the nature of this type of employment is still “below the radar” of established, traditional financial institutions. As a result, many freelancers don’t have the needed financial credentials to apply for loans or get credit cards, causing them to join the ranks of the underserved in financial and related services. The good news is that through technology, companies such as MoveForward Inc (MFI) have emerged to provide fair and inclusive buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services on a per transaction basis.

The Department of Finance (DOF) wants financial technology (Fintech) companies in the country to be properly regulated and taxed while encouraging the sector’s growth and continued innovation.

Local financial technology platform Cashalo has kicked off its Visayas- Mindanao expansion through the launch of Shop Now, Pay Later service in Cebu.

Applying for a loan or financing, whether it’s for a car, a business, a house, etc. is a tedious, time-consuming process that requires the heavy involvement of the applicant, their employer, and the concerned financial institution or vendor. Smile API is a digital platform that fast tracks that process by facilitating application approval (or rejection) within just a few seconds. As a result, it delivers significant value to workers who need to secure financial and/or related services; employers who can recover operational time lost to the cumbersome paper trail; and banks and financial institutions that can experience fast, secure transactions in the many moribund application procedures.

Homegrown fintech startup NextPay, raised over P80 million (US$1.6 million) in seed funding from international and local investors to develop more digital financial services for the country’s underserved small businesses.

‘Digital Pilipinas: a Closer Look at the Philippine Sandbox’, a movement that aims to influence change through technology and innovation across the local and global spheres was launched on July 22 by government and industry leaders from both the Philippines and Singapore.

Financial technology (fintech) companies in the Philippines are poised to overtake brick and mortar banks, debt-watcher Moody’s Investors Service said.

Mastercard today announced that Netbank, the Philippines’ first Banking-as-a-Service platform (BaaS), will join its Fintech Express program, giving the regulated Filipino bank access to a vast range of Mastercard’s digital-first products and enabling it to issue debit and credit cards under its partners’ brands.