In Photo (from Left): Lito Villanueva, FINTQ Managing Director; Orlando B. Vea, Voyager Innovations and FINTQ President and CEO; Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT, Voyager Innovations, FINTQ Chairman; Samir Gupta, CIMB CEO, Group Consumer Banking; Gurdip Singh, CIMB Group Chief Strategy Officer; Vijay Manoharan, CIMB Senior Managing Director for Digital Banking and Decision Management, Group Consumer Banking.
In Photo (from Left): Lito Villanueva, FINTQ Managing Director; Orlando B. Vea, Voyager Innovations and FINTQ President and CEO; Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT, Voyager Innovations, FINTQ Chairman; Samir Gupta, CIMB CEO, Group Consumer Banking; Gurdip Singh, CIMB Group Chief Strategy Officer; Vijay Manoharan, CIMB Senior Managing Director for Digital Banking and Decision Management, Group Consumer Banking.
CIMB taps FINTQ’s Lendr to achieve scale as it enters the Philippine market
Kuala Lumpur-based CIMB has started to beef up its operations in the Philippines by tapping FINTQ—the financial technology arm of PLDT and Smart’s Voyager Innovations—for its lending business.
CIMB, Malaysia’s second largest lender, is the first foreign bank in the ASEAN region to tap Lendr for its digital-only strategy in the Philippines. Through the agreement, CIMB will gain access to prospective Filipinos seeking for loan products that best suit their needs.
This move by the Malaysian lender is in line with its strategy to establish itself as a ‘digital-only bank’ in the country. A digital retail banking strategy trims banks’ cost-to-income ratio—a measure of efficiency and productivity for banks. A lower ratio indicates a higher efficiency and profitability for a company.
Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Aziz, CIMB Group CEO said, “We are pleased that our relationship with PLDT has evolved into a strong, strategic partnership with its related companies. We are confident that by leveraging on these partners’ local strengths as well as CIMB’s extensive digital experience, we will be able to provide our customers in the Philippines with a seamless digital banking experience. CIMB is excited with the prospects that the Philippines market offers and we are also confident that our differentiated strategy based on digital and partnerships will bring a strong value proposition into the market.”
“We are excited to collaborate with CIMB on this fast growing FinTech space. This is in line with our mission to collaborate with partners and develop mutually beneficial propositions. This is just the start of a long-term fruitful partnership with one of ASEAN’s largest banks,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan Chairman of PLDT, Smart, Voyager Innovations and FINTQ.
“This collaboration with FINTQ paves the way for CIMB to further expand its reach and grow its scale as it begins to operate in the Philippine market. This also empowers our consumers as they gain access to more loan products through our Lendr platform, where they can easily secure access to funding anytime, anywhere through their mobile phones,” said Orlando B. Vea, Voyager Innovations and FINTQ President and CEO.
Through Lendr, consumers can apply for their desired loan products by visiting Lendr’s website: www.lendr.com.ph or through the Lendr app (for Android phone users initially). They simply need to create their Lendr account and profile, provide all necessary information and submit their application with their desired lending partner of Lendr at their most convenient time, without having to visit a bank branch.
“As the Philippines’ leading digital lending service with the most extensive digital footprint covering all provinces in the country, Lendr aims to always provide our partners and consumers a 24/7 accessible mobile platform solution that caters to their respective needs. As our first foreign bank partner in the ASEAN region for Lendr, this collaboration with CIMB allows us to grow our ecosystem of partner financial institutions while at the same time providing more options for our consumers,” said Lito Villanueva, FINTQ Managing Director.
FINTQ’s partners for Lendr, its pioneering and award-winning digital lending platform include: China Bank Savings, PNB Savings Bank, RCBC Savings Bank, Cebuana Lhuillier Bank, Camalig Bank, Inc. (A Rural Bank), Philippine Business Bank, Producers Savings Bank Corp.,First Circle, PawnHero, Esquire Financing, Inc., ALGO Leasing and Finance, Inc., EastWest Bank, Land Bank of the Philippines, Maybank Philippines, Inc., Insular Bank (A Rural Bank), Development Bank of the Philippines, JK Capital Finance, Philippine Bank of Communications, Asialink Finance Corp., Bank of Commerce, and MCC MoneyShops Finance Co. Inc. FINTQ will also be working with CoopHub to make digital lending more accessible to over 26,000 cooperatives nationwide.
Lendr has the most expansive loan offerings. On top of the traditional salary, personal, home and auto loan products, it offers mobile crop loan, medicine loan, mSME loan, overseas Filipino loan, and truck and equipment loan, among others. It now has disbursed in excess of US$580 million in loans since it was launched in 2015.
Every consumer has the right to access financial services. With Lendr, we aim to be the leading organization in promoting digital financial inclusion in the Philippines and other emerging markets. Lendr is our flagship platform that allows bank partners to reach more customers, while it provides consumers easy, fast and secure access to funding anytime, anywhere, with the use of their mobile devices, Villanueva said.
FINTQnologies Corp. is the leader in customer-centric, demand driven, evidence-based, and mobile-first digital financial innovations by way of engaging regulators, enabling enterprises, and empowering individuals. FINTQ is committed to accelerating universal digital access to finance at scale via pioneering financial technologies in growth and emerging markets. It is the financial technology arm of Voyager Innovations under the PLDT Group. To know more, visit http://www.fintq.com