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Philippines: UnionBank fintech arm sees sustained growth this year
MANILA, Philippines — The financial technology arm of Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines expects to sustain its growth momentum, as gross transaction value processed reached P20 billion last year.
John Januszczak, president and CEO at UnionBank’s UBX, said the leading open finance platform in the country aims to ride on its remarkable growth last year as revenues ballooned five times.
“The year 2021 was a real inflection point for us – it is when we achieved traction. Our goal is to continue to ride on this growth momentum in 2022 through constant innovation and the development of solutions that will further democratize access to financial services,” Januszczak said.
UBX recorded an annual gross transaction value of P20 billion last year after serving more than 200,000 business to business customers and partnered with more than 2,000 independent banking agents and 250 financial institutions.
UBX enables interoperability among different financial institutions by making data more accessible and portable. It offers a spectrum of financial services, providing technology that allows them to be embedded into digital platforms and business ecosystems.
“We’re connecting people to the financial systems of the country, we’re doing it in a way that’s more affordable and providing more opportunity and access to everybody, and we believe that improves lives,” Januszczak said.
Over the last three years, UBX invested in building and developing various financial services that create more value for both consumers and businesses. Among its solutions are i2i, SeekCap, Bux and Sentro.
In particular, i2i brings financial services to underserved communities through its network of financial services providers, while SeekCap is the country’s first same-day approval, digital lending marketplace developed for micro, small, medium sized enterprises that need access to credit to run and scale their businesses.
Bux, on the other hand, is an end-to-end payment gateway for businesses of all sizes. It allows businesses to accept payments from their customers through over 50,000+ of over-the-counter locations, including 7-Eleven and LBC, debit and credit card payments, as well as wallet payments via GrabPay and GCash.
UBX is committed to continue developing new financial solutions this year as it sees a huge opportunity in the industry with the rollout of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy framework for open finance.
“We believe in a future where financial services are embedded into the everyday experiences and activities that matter to businesses and people. We will continue to introduce more digital financial solutions this year to complement and support the open finance policy framework of the central bank,” Januszczak said.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2022/02/14/2160716/unionbank-fintech-arm-sees-sustained-growth-year