UBX eyes P1 trillion transactions in 5 years

SINGAPORE – The financial technology arm of Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines intends to sustain its growth momentum as it targets to hit P1 trillion in transactions in five years.

On the sidelines of the Singapore Fintech Festival here, Union Bank’s UBX CEO and president John Januszczak said the leading open and embedded finance platform in the Philippines aims to grow 10 times by 2028.

“Our goal and strategy is that in five years, our gross transaction volume (GTV) as a measure of real customers using our platform, will grow by 10 times,” Januszczak said.

“So, that’s P1 trillion in GTV. There is an opportunity to unlock a lot more growth because our market penetration is still quite small. So, we are just starting,” he said.

Similarly, credit applications and transactions are expected to grow at a similar pace from the current P30 billion.

To achieve this, Januszczak said UBX believes that artificial intelligence (AI) is the next lever in reaching the rest of the population.

He noted that UBX has been leveraging AI since it started, but has now stepped on the gas to further contribute in unlocking financial inclusion among Filipinos.

As of now, Januszczak said UBX’s biggest competitor is the lack of access to education and financial inclusion.

UBX global chief technology officer Mario Domingo, for his part, added that connectivity problems in the Philippines is also a major challenge in driving financial inclusion.

Further, Domingo said that there is the other side of the coin in the paradigm shift toward AI-driven models.

“This is the appetite of our lenders to lend money to these new measurements and new metrics of what the future would look like,” Domingo said.

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.

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.

Open finance has the power to accelerate the country’s financial inclusion goal as it democratizes access to a spectrum of financial products and services, particularly for the unbanked and underbanked, as well as growing business.

Driving access and interoperability among financial ecosystem participants, open finance allows financial institutions to reach the unbanked and underbanked while empowering them to tailor solutions that meet the needs of consumers and businesses.

Open finance enables participants to acquire customers at scale, develop solutions specific to the unbanked, underbanked, and growing businesses, and provide consumers with greater choice and control over their data.