GLOBE Telecom Inc. has set its eyes on the huge unbanked and uncarded Asean market, as its financial services arm considers that there is an “urgent call” for financial inclusion among a significant portion of the population in the region.
According to John M. Rubio, the president of Mynt, there are about 1.5 billion people in the Asean who are still unbanked and uncarded. In the Philippines alone, 40 percent of municipalities do not have access to physical banks.
“Mynt sees an opportunity to create a financially inclusive environment that will cater to every person who does not have access to formal financial facilities and services,” he said. “We already started with the Philippines and will eventually move into the Asean region. Right now, there are about 1.5 billion people in the region who are unbanked and underserved and who can benefit from financial technology.”
He lamented the lack of banks around the region make it easy for loan
sharks to proliferate.
“With no credit cards and no banks, many people succumb to informal lenders. Many of them also find it costly to send money. But with financial technology, anyone can have access to consumer loans, micro finance, various payment platforms, domestic and international remittance, and digital bills payments, among others,” Rubio said.
Hence, the rapid adoption of such technology is necessary to create a digital
nation, which could further help the
country move forward.
“Mynt is well placed to solve the problem. By tapping into the wide customer base of Globe, we can immediately provide 57 million Filipinos with mobile
money accounts.
We can transform over 1 million retailers and outlet network of Globe nationwide into financial community
centers,” he said.
The financial services arm of Globe is currently expanding its mobile money customer base, as well as strengthening its remittance and payment value propositions via GCash, the mobile money service of GXchange Inc.
Through GCash, ordinary consumers can pay bills, buy prepaid load, as well as send and receive money for a fraction of the cost charged by traditional remittance centers, anytime and anywhere.
They can also apply for a debit beep Mastercard, which can be used to shop and dine in almost 33 million establishments worldwide, shop online and pay for transport services.
Mynt is also working to build and scale retail and consumer-loan businesses and provide relevant financial-technology solutions to organizations through scalable and portable platforms in view of high loan interest rates of up to 240 percent per annum and inefficient delivery collection methods under traditional channels.