Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transitioning from a technological tool to the core infrastructure of finance, a shift that is fundamentally changing who banks can serve.
This message was championed by the Philippines’ leading all-in-one fintech platform, Maya, at the prestigious Hong Kong FinTech Week 2025 x StartmeupHK Festival.
Alfred Lo, Group Chief Technology Officer of Maya, told a global audience of banking and fintech leaders that AI is key to building a more inclusive, intelligent financial ecosystem.
Maya Group Chief Technology Officer Alfred Lo (left) speaks on the “AI-First Banking: Blueprints for the Future of Financial Institutions” during Hong Kong FinTech Week 2025
“AI is becoming the new infrastructure of finance,” said Lo. “At Maya, we use AI to understand people better, make credit more inclusive, and strengthen trust in every transaction”.
Data-driven inclusion: Lowering default rates, boosting loans
Maya, which operates both the Philippines’ #1 Digital Bank (Maya Bank) and its leading payments processor (Maya Philippines), has deeply integrated AI into every aspect of its services — spanning payments, savings, credit, and fraud prevention.
The results highlight AI’s impact on financial inclusion in a market where the credit gap remains significant. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Financial Inclusion Survey 2021, a staggering 57% of adults with loans relied on informal sources, while only 4% borrowed from banks.
Then bank is directly addressing this gap:
- Scale and reach: As of end-June 2025, the brand has exceeded 8.2 million bank customers and recorded ₱152 billion in cumulative loan disbursements.
- Intelligent lending: The bank’s AI models analyze thousands of behavioral and transactional signals. This allows the platform to deliver instant credit decisions, process tens of thousands of loan applications daily, and has significantly lowered default rates since Maya Bank’s 2022 launch.
“AI helps us design credit for inclusion, not exclusion,” Lo added. “It allows us to extend opportunities responsibly — making financial health part of everyday life, not a privilege for a few”.
Maya’s “Fintech Redefined” event
Maya Group Chief Technology Officer Alfred Lo
Lo participated in the “AI-First Banking: Blueprints for the Future of Financial Institutions” panel, where he shared the blueprint for the brand’s success.
Hong Kong FinTech Week 2025, in collaboration with InvestHK and StartmeupHK, gathered over 30,000 attendees. The event’s theme, “Fintech Redefined,” centered on how technologies like AI, digital assets, and cross-border innovation are reshaping the global financial landscape.
The brand was featured alongside global heavyweights like HSBC, Ant Group, and Mastercard.
The presentation underscores the growing recognition of the Philippine market as a leader in leveraging next-generation technology to solve age-old problems of financial access and trust.
