MANILA, Philippines — PayMaya Philippines Inc., the digital financial arm of PLDT Inc.’s Voyager Innovations Inc., has partnered with Liberty Commercial Center Inc. (LCC) which operates malls, supermarkets, and department store chains in Bicol to enable cashless payments in the region.
With the partnership, Bicol residents can now buy their EMV-powered PayMaya cards and add money to their PayMaya accounts at select LCC stores across the region.
In addition, shoppers can now pay for purchases using the PayMaya app by scanning the Quick Response (QR) code displayed at the cashier area at more than 70 branches of LCC Department Store, LCC Supermarket, LCC Market Savers, LCC Market Plus, LCC Store Plus, and LCC Expressmart.
“We’re proud to be leading the charge toward a cashless Bicol with the introduction of PayMaya in our stores, the first mobile-based QR payment system to be available for consumers in the Bicol region. We know this will bring a better and more convenient experience to our customers and help encourage more digital transactions within the region,” Christian Tan, LCC Supermarket vice president for operations, said.
“With partners like LCC, we can all help achieve the government’s target of 20 percent of transactions going digital by the year 2020, especially as more cashless communities like Bicol go onboard with this mission all around the country,” PayMaya Philippines president and chief executive officer Orlando Vea said.
The partnership is seen beneficial to Bicol residents as five out of six provinces in the Bicol region belong to the low to medium access provinces in terms of access to formal financial institutions based on the 2017 to 2018 Inclusive Digital Finance Report of FINTQ, the financial technology arm of Voyager.
“PayMaya is the easiest way for Bicolanos to have their own financial account and be able to transact–whether it’s online through the virtual card in-app or offline through PayMaya QR or the PayMaya card. Bringing these closer to them means they now have greater access to financial services they can use not just in Bicol, but also nationwide and around the world as well,” Paolo Azzola, chief operating officer and managing director at PayMaya Philippines said.
To promote the partnership, PayMaya account holders in Bicol who will use their PayMaya card or PayMaya QR to pay in the LCC branches until Aug. 15 will get 25 percent cashback on their purchases, with a maximum discount of P500 per LCC store per day.
To get a PayMaya account, an individual should download the PayMaya app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store and sign up for an account using their mobile number.
Users can load their PayMaya accounts through LCC Business Centers or through the more than 20,000 touchpoints available nationwide, including Smart Padala centers, 7-Eleven Outlets, Touchpay Kiosks, UnionBank of the Philippines automated teller machines, Shopwise, Wellcome, 2Go, ExpressPay, Cebuana Lhuillier, Palawan Pawnshop branches, Smart Padala centers, BDO Unibank Inc., UnionBank online, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. online banking and financial institutions part of InstaPay.