PLDT unit leads digital lending innovations, feted with global awards

 

[23 MARCH 2017] FINTQ, the financial technology arm of PLDT and Smart’s Voyager Innovations, emerged as the leading financial technology (FinTech) provider with its various digital lending platforms benefiting not only its partner banks and non-banks but thousands of Filipinos nationwide as well.

“We are glad that FINTQ’s various platforms have already taken root and are helping in our financial inclusion drive at Voyager. These platforms will pave the way toward empowering more Filipinos, especially those in the countryside, with the help of digital technology,” said Orlando B. Vea, President and CEO at Voyager Innovations.

“Aside from delivering an awesome customer experience, FINTQ’s strategic play focuses on enabling digital transformation of its partners in the banking, financial services and insurance sector. As the first player in the industry with existing strategic collaboration with top banks and non banks in the country, we have seen quick adoption by the customers further empowering them with easy, convenient and accessible access to finance. We have bridged the digital divide in retail lending via branchless banking,” added Lito Villanueva, Managing Director at FINTQ.

FINTQ’s various telco-agnostic digital lending platforms–which include Lendr, Mobile Loan Saver (with LANDBANK), and micro-lending Pera Agad (with Cash Credit) – helped disburse over P17 billion in total loans since 2015 to more than 110,000 borrowers, 70% of which reside outside Metro Manila.

With its platforms, FINTQ has the most extensive digital lending footprint in the country today, with loan transactions coming from all 81 provinces, 90 percent of the 145 cities and eight percent of the 1,490 municipalities.

These platforms have extended the reach of partner financial institutions, leveraging on mobile devices as the pervasive customer touchpoint. Almost 50 percent of borrowers lodged their loan applications outside office hours.

To date, FINTQ has signed up some of the country’s biggest banks for its various platforms, including the likes of Land Bank of the Philippines, China Bank Savings, Union Bank of the Philippines, Maybank Philippines, PNB Savings Bank, RCBC Savings Bank, Camalig Bank, First Circle, Cebuana Lhuillier Rural Bank, Philippine Business Bank, and Producers Bank, among others.

“We thank Camalig Bank for bringing Lendr to us. We don’t need to travel 57 kilometers every time we apply for a loan. This is user friendly and can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Now, even us living in remote areas in the country could enjoy this program,” said Noel Buendia, senior administrative assistant of Viga Rural Development High School situated in the fourth-class municipality of Viga in Catanduanes.

 

Globally recognized

Capping off these milestones, FINTQ recently bagged the “Fintech of the Year” award for 2016 by The Asset Triple A Digital Awards in Hong Kong, where it bested other financial technology providers in developed markets such as China, Japan, and Singapore.

Lendr and Pera Agad, on the other hand was also recognized by The Asset for being the “Most Innovative Cloud Project” and the “Most Innovative Data Analytics Project” distinctions, respectively.

Meanwhile, Mobile Loan Saver in partnership with the Land Bank of the Philippines, was also recently recognized with an Excellence in Fintech Lending award at the Lafferty Global Awards in South Africa.

“We are truly honored to be given these recognitions as one of the best in fintech both in the Philippines and the region. We are committed to develop more innovations that help enable financial institutions and empower more Filipinos through relevant services that are easily within their reach,” Villanueva said.

To date, FINTQ’s various platforms have received over 30 global and local awards in less than three years since inception.

FINTQ is the leader in customer-centric, demand-driven, mobile-first, value-creating, and inclusive digital financial innovations through collaboration across strategic markets with award-winning and pioneering platforms, products and services. It is the largest and the only financial technology business with diverse digital banking and finance portfolio of platforms including lending, security, micro-savings, insurance, disbursements, micro-credit and virtual banking, among others.

For more information about FINTQ and all of its products and services, please visit www.fintq.com.

 

Cultivating trust in the financial technology space

[20 MARCH 2017] Amidst all the advancements in financial innovations, trust must still be at the center of any digital transformation efforts of banks and financial institutions, according to Lito Villanueva (leftmost), Managing Director of FINTQ, the financial technology arm of PLDT’s Voyager Innovations, during the recent Asian Financial Services Congress organized by IDC Financial Insights at the Marina Bay Sands Singapore.

“Against the wave of digital tsunami, every organization, financial or non-financial institution, needs to quickly pivot by shifting to lifestyle-driven initiatives from the proverbial transaction-based services,” Villanueva said.

Trust will be the basis for how stakeholders engage with regulators, partners, vendors, and especially to customers. Trust will be increasingly evident in how players in the industry build business through “co-opetition” and shared economies, how they support APIs and open-banking concepts, and how they fast-track integration of external innovators.

Villanueva defined TRUST as an acronym that represents Transparency, Relationship, Universality, Security and Transformational.

The two-day forum which drew over a thousand executives from the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry in over 10 countries focused on how the financial industry has gone through tremendous digital transformation in recent years. These changes include the surge of cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI), announcements of new digital-mobile payment initiatives and the growing acceptance of financial technology or FinTech, among others.

Among the panelists include Annie Ong, Regional Sales Director of Salesforce (rightmost), and Martin Read, Lead Partner in SE Asia of Deloitte Digital (middle). It was moderated by Michael Araneta, Associate Vice President, IDC Financial Insights.

Lendr and Camalig Bank bring mobile loans convenience to teachers in Bicol region

Loans are now just a tap away. Teachers from several schools in Catanduanes in Bicol experience how to apply for a loan via Internet-connected mobile devices through Lendr, the digital lending platform of Voyager Innovations’ financial technology arm FINTQ, with the help of Camalig Bank, the largest rural bank in the Bicol region.

 

[20 MARCH 2017] The Camalig Bank, Inc. (A Rural Bank), together with FINTQ, the financial technology arm of PLDT and Smart’s Voyager Innovations, have started rolling out mobile-based loan applications to several towns in Catanduanes through the digital lending platform Lendr.

With the help of Lendr, qualified teachers in various schools in the towns of Viga, Panganiban, and Bagamanoc in Catanduanes were able to apply for loans using Internet-connected mobile devices, and get notifications for their application all within the same day. Several other schools in the region are also expected to be part of the program in the coming months.

“We’re happy to partner with Camalig Bank in this effort of empowering teachers and other residents in low-income cities and municipalities in the Bicol region through mobile-based digital lending via Lendr. Through a fast and convenient application system, many are now gaining access to formal finance which will help them participate in this rapidly growing digital economy,” said Lito Villanueva, Managing Director at FINTQ.

No need to file leave

Typically, teachers would have to take a leave from school work just to be able to apply for a loan at bank branches located in Virac, Catanduanes.

The trip usually takes them at least two hours one way, with most traveling as much as 57 kilometers just to reach the town proper whenever they need a loan.

But through Lendr, teachers and school staff from the Department of Education and instructors and non-teaching personnel from state colleges and universities can now easily apply for a salary loan from Camalig Bank using only their mobile phones.

“The digital age has ushered so much convenience for all. Part of our transformation efforts at Camalig Bank is to bring such benefits to our clientele in the Bicol region, and to be able to serve more clients, even those in far-flung municipalities that are traditionally out of our reach,” said Miel Moralada, President of Camalig Bank.

Camalig Bank is the largest rural bank in the Bicol region, with presence in the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Masbate, and Sorsogon, aside from Catanduanes.

Toward greater financial inclusion

The partnership between FINTQ and Camalig Bank through Lendr forms part of the support for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) National Strategy for Financial Inclusion, which aims to establish programs and system that ensure access to financial products and services for the traditionally unbanked and underserved communities in the country.

At the heart of these financial inclusion efforts are mobile and digital systems like Lendr, which enable banks and financial institutions to serve traditionally untapped markets even without establishing brick-and-mortar branches in these areas.

“BSP welcomes this development in starting the journey towards digitizing rural bank lending. This is well aligned with the government’s thrust of promoting responsive and responsible banking. Ultimately, technology will not just level the playing field, but also will bring speed, convenience, cost efficiencies and transparency benefitting customers,” said BSP Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr.

“Mobile brings anytime, anywhere access to financial products and services for everyone. In this era of digital, banks must respond to the changing consumer landscape, so that they may be able to service more Filipinos that are still not within the reach of the banking and financial ecosystem. We are glad to be partnering with local banks with the guidance of BSP to realize that vision,” Villanueva explained.

In 2016, FINTQ’s various digital lending platforms–which include Lendr, LANDBANK Mobile Loan Saver, and micro-lending Pera Agad–have disbursed over P10 billion in loans to more than 110,000 borrowers, 70% of whom reside outside Metro Manila.

To know more about Lendr, visit www.lendr.com.ph. For more information about Camalig Bank, log on to www.camaligbank.com.ph.

 

Loans are now just a tap away. Teachers from several schools in Catanduanes in Bicol experience how to apply for a loan via Internet-connected mobile devices through Lendr, the digital lending platform of Voyager Innovations’ financial technology arm FINTQ, with the help of Camalig Bank, the largest rural bank in the Bicol region.

 

Loans are now just a tap away. Teachers from several schools in Catanduanes in Bicol experience how to apply for a loan via Internet-connected mobile devices through Lendr, the digital lending platform of Voyager Innovations’ financial technology arm FINTQ, with the help of Camalig Bank, the largest rural bank in the Bicol region.

Bloomberg TV’s Thought Leaders featuring FINTQ’s Lito Villanueva

[27 FEBRUARY 2017] Believing that financial inclusion is the key to empowering communities, FINTQ Managing Director Lito Villanueva is revolutionizing the region’s fintech industry through digital innovations that enable financial institutions and empower Filipinos from all walks of life. Watch the three-part interview of Bloomberg TV Philippines’ Thought Leaders show below.