Consumer finance firm CreditCare Technology recently teamed up with MoneyGram International in an effort to expand its services further into emerging markets in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Nigeria.
CreditCare offers affordable money transfers and consumer loans with low credit rates. Its mission is to be able to provide financial products to ‘unbanked’ people, including personal loans and remittances.
“Working with MoneyGram is a turning point in our mission to provide affordable financial services to users in new regions,” said CreditCare Technology in a press release. ‘We believe that not only the top 10% of the population, but all people, should have access to affordable financial services. Thanks to the link between CreditCare and MoneyGram, people can now send money easily, securely, and easily.”
Strengthening the consumer finance company’s P2P payments in PH
According to the San Francisco-based company, the partnership with a world-leading money remittance firm like MoneyGram is a significant milestone towards its mission of bringing inclusive financial services to users in emerging markets.
Based on the agreement, Moneygram will help strengthen the consumer finance company’s digital P2P payments. The partnership with Moneygram will also allow CreditCare to gain access to an additional 12,000 branches, including Bank of Commerce, Bank of the Philippines, and Cebuana Lhuillier.
In Nigeria, the company will use Moneygram’s back-end infrastructure and nine partner banks to set up operations to provide greater access, security, and simplicity so people can remit funds and get access to lines of credit.
In emerging countries where more than half of the world’s population cannot participate in the official financial system, CreditCare believes that online banking is an innovative idea. When digital money is not used, countries and their populations could also lose new products, services, and innovations.
Digital revolution accelerating financial access for EMs
CreditCare was founded by Julia G. Ko, an accomplished entrepreneur based in San Fransico, in January 2019.
According to the press release, Ko was driven to build her fintech business from scratch with no known connections in the emerging markets to improve the lives of consumers. After two years of rejections from regulators, she was finally able to secure non-depository bank licenses valid for 50 years in Vietnam and the Philippines.
Upon approval by regulators, the company was allowed to connect to an infrastructure network of over 20,000 physical sites operated by SoftBank subsidiaries to provide customer support. These sites include realistic locations such as 7-Eleven stores, SM malls, Robinsons grocery stores, and BDO banks.
“The digital revolution has accelerated financial access for emergency medical services (EMs) and decreased the high cost of customer acquisitions with increased efficiency in underwriting. This presents compelling investment opportunities and cross-selling of products within fast-growing economies,” said Julia G. Ko, Founder of CreditCare Technology, in a press release.
“We are excited to make digital financial products available to a broader range of populations. Increased financial access accelerates GDP to an impressive 14% in EMS. By helping drive economic development, we improve the lives of women and by proxy, their families,” she added.