[11 JANUARY 2017] Movers and shakers in the banking, finance, insurance, and technology space converged recently at the 1st Annual FINTQ Appreciation Night at Conrad Manila to welcome 2017 with renewed commitments to intensify collaborations to push for financial inclusion using digital technologies.
Organized by FINTQ, the fintech arm of PLDT and Smart’s Voyager Innovations, the event highlighted achievements and scale-up plans to promote better access to financial services through digital solutions and platforms specifically in the areas of digital lending, digital micro insurance, digital disbursements, and anti-fraud and card security, among others.
The event also served as FINTQ’s tribute to the invaluable contributions of its collaborators which include the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Insurance Commission, Credit Information Corporation (CIC), Land Bank of the Philippines, PNB Savings Bank, China Bank Savings, Visa, First Circle, Unionbank, Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines, Chamber of Thrift Banks, RCBC Savings Bank, Producers Bank, Rural Bank of Camalig, Cebuana Lhuillier Bank, Malayan Insurance, Sun Life Financial, Citi, Cash Credit, RiteMed and the Department of Education.
“It is time to start our people and our financial institutions on their digital journey. And we, at PLDT, as part of the country’s leading institutions, are partners in bringing the best of this era to all of them. Some of those include convenience, efficiency, empowerment, and inclusiveness through mobile technology and the payment systems that we’re enabling as well,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman at PLDT, Smart, and Voyager.
“2016 saw the start of what we call ‘finbiosis’, the coming together of fintechs and financial institutions for collaboration. This year, we see stronger commitments and broader scale in our efforts to make digital truly work for financial inclusion. We thank our partners, our collaborators, our clients and our customers and we’re beyond excited to make a big difference,” said Lito Villanueva, managing director of FINTQ, Voyager Innovations.
For end-2016, FINTQ’s lending platforms alone posted loans outstanding growth of over a hundred percent in excess of P15 billion while loans booked increased by almost a hundred percent to more than 100,000.
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.
Among the solutions and platforms that it offers, include:
Lendr is the country’s first multi-channel, mobile device, bank and telco agnostic consumer loans marketplace, a one-stop-loan shop for personal, auto, salary and home loans. Lendr is also being utilized by banks as their platform for their own customers.
Mobile Loan Saver is the country’s fully paperless and electronic salary loan that provides Landbank customers with an alternative source of financing that they can apply for simply by sending a text message using their mobile phones.
Rove enables government and humanitarian aid agencies with electronic disbursements of cash grants to beneficiaries, with automated monitoring and evaluation components for transparency, speed and efficiency.
Pera Agad, a micro-lending service offered by Cash Credit, that utilizes big data algorithm.
LockByMobile is the world’s first anti-fraud and card control solution which allows customers to lock/unlock their credit, debit and prepaid cards in real-time with a simple swipe of their finger on their mobile phone.
To date, FINTQ platforms have received over 30 global and local awards in less than three years, the most recent one for Lendr being recognized for Excellence in Lending by the Lafferty Global Awards 2016.
“Last year was tremendous for ‘fintech’–both fintech as an emerging force in the financial services industry, and FINTQ as the financial technology arm of Voyager Innovations. We look forward to the year ahead with renewed vigor in further bringing these inclusive technologies to benefit even more people,” said Orlando B. Vea, President and CEO of Voyager Innovations.
“The National Retail Payments System envisions to bring the share of electronic transactions to 20% by 2020, from just 1% to 2% today. It’s a big journey that we are embarking upon, and it is impossible to reach that goal without the kind of partnerships that we’re beginning to see with companies like FINTQ and others like them who bring innovation into the Philippine financial system,” added Nestor Espenilla, Jr., Deputy Governor at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. “We hope to continue to bring that forward to foster more innovation into our financial system so that the benefits of digital finance can be experienced by all of us.”
Voyager Innovations is the digital innovations arm of PLDT and Smart Communications. Aside from fintech, it focuses on emerging market platforms in the areas of digital financial services, digital commerce, sponsored data access and digital marketing technologies. For more information about FINTQ, visit www.fintq.com. For more information about Voyager Innovations, visit www.voyagerinnovation.com.
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