GCash to onboard stock trading soon

MANILA, Philippines — Trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) will soon be made possible through the GCash platform, enabling the entry of around nine million new investors into the bourse over the next five years.

PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon said they have finalized the commercial terms on how stock trading can be done on GCash, with the target of introducing the feature by November.

He said the PSE has entered into a tripartite agreement with GCash and AB Capital Securities, which will serve as broker for investments made through the e-wallet platform.

“PSE has agreed to tie up [with GCash and AB Capital] and we will be offering stock trading to the 67 million subscribers of GCash. It was only last Friday when we agreed on the commercial terms and we are now doing the technical issues,” Monzon said.

GCash estimates that the launch of stock trading on its platform could bring in at least nine million new investors by 2027. Monzon also believes PSE’s expansion into the e-wallet world will improve the number of retail participants in the local bourse.

“When we were going over the projections made by GCash, they project about more than nine million investors in five years’ time,” the PSE chief said.

“Its really going to be a game changer in terms of the number of retail investors participating in the [stock] market.”

The partnership, however, only begins with the launch of stock trading on GCash, as the PSE wants to offer fractional trading in the future to cater to the market of e-wallet users.

“In addition, because of the profile of GCash subscribers, we are also in the process of studying how we can offer fractional trading in shares so that more GCash subscribers are able to invest in stocks. That will be the second step,” Monzon said.

“For the meantime, we have reached an agreement. The broker that will be handling this would be AB Capital. It is a tripartite agreement between PSE, GCash and AB Capital. By November, GCash subscribers should be able to invest directly in the stock market,” he said.

As of end-June, GCash’s user base has touched the 66 million mark, with gross transaction value hitting the P3 trillion level.

Traders said they are looking forward to what value GCash would add to the PSE, especially as its reach continues to widen during the pandemic.

Regina Capital head of sales Luis Limlingan said GCash’s partnership with some of the largest firms could be used to attract Filipinos into stock trading. However, he said the number of additional investors GCash would bring to the PSE would depend on how easy it is to do stock trading on the platform.

“I think the tieup between the firms could help satisfy the increased retail investor participation in the stock market objective of the PSE. But as to how significant that impact would depend on the ease of connecting one’s GCash account to the platform to be designed by PSE,” Limlingan told The STAR.