by Bhea Baarde, Correspondent
Three already launched. Three more to go. The year 2022 may definitely be considered the year for digital banks in the Philippines.
This has become the scenario after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced that it has given the green light for six digital banks to operate in the Philippines. Three of them have already been launched, and we can expect three others to follow suit within this year.
By definition, a digital bank is a type of bank that offers financial products and services processed end-to-end through a digital platform or electronic channels. There is usually no physical branch, sub-branch, or branch-lite unit that’d offer these financial products and services.
The licensing of digital banks is part of the regulatory policy of the BSP and is envisioned to advance the digitalization of the financial industry in the Philippines.
Digital banks are in-scope of the BSP’s mission to promote financial inclusion and payment digitalization in the country. The said initiative aims to convert 50% of the retail payment into digital form and include 70% of Filipino adults in banking and other formal financial institutions by 2023.
With continuous digitalization, digital banks could be the future of banking not just in the Philippines but also worldwide.
As of this writing, there are already six licensed digital banks in the country — Overseas Filipino Bank (OF Bank), Tonik Digital Bank, Maya Bank, UnionDigital, GoTyme Bank, and UNO Digital Bank.
Let’s get to know more about each of them here.
Overseas Filipino Bank (OF Bank)
The digital banks align with the BSP’s mission to promote financial inclusion and payment digitalization in the country. The initiative aims to convert 50% of the retail payment into digital form and include 70% of Filipino adults in banking and other formal financial institutions by 2023.
With the continuous digitalization, digital banks could be the future of banking not just in the Philippines but also worldwide. In total there are already six licensed digital banks in the country. Let’s get to know them more here.
Overseas Filipino Bank (OF Bank)
The Overseas Filipino Bank (OF Bank) is a subsidiary of the state-run Land Bank of the Philippines. It used to be known as the Philippine Postal Savings Bank Inc. and was transformed into the first government digital-only and branchless bank. Its mandate is to provide financial products and services tailored to the requirements of overseas Filipinos, hence the name. It was officially launched in January 2018.
OFBank offers services such as deposits, loans, remittances, investments, and e-banking for overseas Filipinos and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their beneficiaries. They make these services accessible and manageable through digital banking.
As of May this year, OFBank has already served clients from 113 countries, which includes the top 10 destinations for the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), namely, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Hong Kong, Qatar, Kuwait, Taiwan, Italy, Bahrain, and Malaysia.
Tonik Digital Bank
Launched in March 2021, Tonik is a Singapore-based bank. It is officially the Philippines’ first neobank to secure a digital bank license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Being the leader in internet and social media usage, Tonik believes that the Philippines is now ready to become a world leader in digital banking, too.
Tonik offers retail financial products, including deposits, loans, savings accounts, payments, and cards on a highly secure digital banking platform. In the Tonik app, one can enjoy five stashes plus up to five time deposit accounts using just one Tonik account.
Within 8 months after its launch, Tonik has surpassed $100 million in consumer deposits. Tonik also made history in Philippine banking by securing $20 million dollars just one month after its inauguration.
Maya Bank
Maya Bank, Inc. is a rebrand of one of the leading e-wallets in the Philippines, PayMaya, with 47 million customers. The digital bank is owned by Voyager Innovations, Inc., a leading technology company in the Philippines.
Maya Bank provides services such as Maya Savings, Maya Business, and Maya Credit. With Maya Credit, the bank aims to empower and accelerate the success of small to mid-sized enterprises and SMEs in the country. It also offers Maya Crypto, where users can buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency for as low as P1.
The digital bank has just been launched in April this year, alongside the rebrand of the PayMaya platform to Maya, to include online banking services.
UnionDigital
Union Digital Bank or UnionDigital is a digital bank owned by the Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank). True to the company’s motto, “Leading the Future of Banking”, it is the first local and privately-owned traditional bank in the Philippines that received a digital bank license from the BSP.
Aside from believing in embracing technological innovations, UnionBank also believes that through UnionDigital, they will be able to reach more of the unbanked population in the country.
Six months after receiving the license in December 2020, UnionDigital has started operating as a fintech company and also as a bank.
This year, UnionDigital has accelerated its move to fintech by partnering with Yield Guild Games (YGG) to serve play-to-earn and Web3 communities in the country. The firm also plans to launch Crypto Stablecoin Philippine Peso UnionDigital stablecoin (PHD) and enter the non-fungible token (NFT) industry.
GoTyme Bank
GoTyme digital bank is a partnership between the Philippine conglomerate Gokongwei Group and Tyme, another Singapore-based digital bank. It aims to help more Filipinos get into digital banking and provide services that can compete against the best banks in the world.
The BSP granted it a license to operate in August 2021, and the company is expected to launch by the third quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, a preview of their services includes savings, interest, rewards, fund transfers, trading and investing, and 24/7 customer support via call, chat, or e-mail. They also emphasized that users can also open an account and get a card easier and faster in just 5 minutes. The digibank also aims to provide a more secure and easy onboarding through both an app and digital kiosks located throughout the mall, which is the retail footprint of the Gokongwei group.
UNO Digital Bank
UNO Digital Bank is a rebrand of credit-led UNObank, which makes it the second rebrand on this list. It was operated by another Singapore-based company, DigibankASIA.
UNO aims to help customers with their present financial needs and long-term goals by providing services that can secure, leverage, maximize, and grow their money. The bank shall offer special features such as a higher interest rate on savings, an immediate virtual debit card and zero hidden fees plus a pre-approved, dynamic credit line.
UNO Digital Bank is set to launch by the second quarter of this year.