THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), in its most recent “Financial Inclusion Survey,” from 2019, about 71.4 percent of the country’s adult population, or around 51.2 million people, was unbanked, which is already an improvement compared to 77.4 percent in 2017.
BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno expressed his agenda of expanding the account penetration of the country to 70 percent by 2023, where his vision was to see a Philippines become a digital-heavy but cash-light society.
This is why Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of the Alibaba Group, has collaborated with UBX, the fintech venture studio and fund from out of UnionBank of the Philippines, to accelerate financial inclusion in the country through harnessing digital technologies.
Xpanse, UBX’s new open finance platform, will leverage Alibaba Cloud’s eKYC (Electronic Know Your Customer) solution provided by Zoloz, a strategic partner of Alibaba Cloud, to help financial institutions in the Philippines boost their business efficiency and reinforce system security by digitalizing the identity verification process.
“Open Finance is significantly changing the way financial institutions interact with each other and their customers. Leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s advanced e-wallet technologies, UBX will enable Philippine financial institutions to reach more of the country’s unbanked and build trust remotely,” explains John Januszczak, President and CEO of UBX, to FrontpagePH.com.
For his part, Allen Guo, Country Manager for the Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, told FrontpagePH.com that “Alibaba Cloud shares UBX’s mission of enabling a financially inclusive society through accessible financial services, especially in the new normal. We believe our proven technologies in the e-wallet industry could assist UBX in promoting financial inclusion and equipping financial institutions in the Philippines with advanced solutions that operate seamlessly and reliably for end-users.”
Zoloz’s RealID eKYC solution streamlines the whole customer authentication process for financial institutions, eliminates paper-based procedures, and reduces the cost and time spent on manual verification, resulting in faster onboarding and an enhanced customer experience.
The solution also helps financial institutions adhere to regulatory compliance more easily, thanks to its rich AI model and comprehensive risk management engine that can guarantee high accuracy and reduce identity fraud.
As the leading public cloud service provider in Asia Pacific, Alibaba Cloud is one of the founding members of the FinTech Alliance of the Philippines, offering its expertise in cloud technology to provide appropriate solutions to address issues and challenges in the sector.
The FinTech industry in the Philippines has been growing steadily in recent years, with advancements in digitalisation and the availability of smart devices leading development. In June 2021, Bangko Sentral Pilipinas (BSP) approved the new guidelines for the Open Finance Framework, allowing “consent-driven data portability, interoperability, and collaborative partnerships among financial institutions and third-party providers (TPPs).”