FINTQ kicks off 2018 with ‘Disruptors’ Ball’

MANILA, Philippines — FINTQ, the financial technology arm of PLDT and Smart’s Voyager Innovations, started the year by gathering all its partners at its first FINTQ Disruptors’ Ball held at the Conrad Manila. There, industry leaders reinforced their commitment to accelerate digital and financial inclusion in the country.

“What we are disrupting here is the state of the unbanked and underserved Filipinos,” said Orlando Vea, president and CEO of Voyager Innovations, as he opened the event. To do so, FINTQ will launch a slew of platforms that will allow consumers to gain access to retail financial services, bringing the country a step further to financial inclusion.

Voyager aims to include 30 million Filipinos in the formal financial system by 2020 through its digital platforms, which is in line with the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion.

Voyager Innovations President and CEO Orlando Vea, PLDT Group Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan; Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and FINTQ Managing Director Lito Villanueva. 

FINTQ Managing Director Lito Villanueva, in his speech during the event, said, “To be a disruptor means breaking barriers and eradicating inefficiencies to provide seamless and awesome digital customer experience.”

For this year, he added, the KasamaKA Movement will go deeper into the grassroots as FINTQ rolls out various platforms in the market such as the KasamaKA Microsavings, KasamaKA Microinsurance, KasamaKA Microinvestment and the expanded Lendr digital lending platform.

“Simply put, KasamaKA is a social and cultural revolution, a journey towards empowering Filipinos. There is no better way to explain or translate the term financial inclusion to its supposed audience than the powerful words KasamaKA — that everyone belongs, that no one is left behind,” Villanueva said.

“The way to include the millions of unbanked is to sachet financial products. Effectively servicing them is by way of enabling our bank partners to reach the 69 percent of the population that remain untapped through sari-sari stores,” he added.

In response, luminaries from the government and nongovernment organizations, as well as executives from the banking, financial services and insurance sectors expressed their strong support for FINTQ and Voyager’s goal of financial and digital inclusion in the country.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, in his speech, delivered by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said, “I welcome the KasamaKA movement as an effective way to realize our agenda for inclusive growth. Let me underscore that the government is committed to reduce poverty through financial inclusion.”

Sun Savings Chairman and CEO Francisco Dizon, FINTQ Managing Director Lito Villanueva, BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier, Chamber of Thrift Banks Executive Director Suzanne Felix, and RCBC Savings Bank President and CEO Rommel Latinazo

Meanwhile, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier said, “For technology to give positive disruption, it must not only be additive but instead be transformative—enriching new markets and effectively addressing needs particularly of those who have long been unserved or underserved.

The BSP believes that we have an important role to play in creating an enabling environment in the development of inclusive financial technology in the country. We are taking this role very seriously and we believe that the the future of the financial system lies in the digital,” Fonacier added.

Among those who delivered their commitments in accelerating inclusive growth through KasamaKA digital finance advocacy included Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairperson Teresita Herbosa, Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa, Credit Information Corporation President and CEO Jaime Garchitorena, Agriculture Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan, Rural Bankers Association President Gino Gabriento, Chamber of Thrift Banks President Greg Anonas, GoNegosyo Agripreneurship adviser Ginggay Hontiveros, CoopHub Chairperson Karina Zobel, BSP Credit Surety Fund Special Program Chairman Oscar Tayko, TransUnion President Pia Arellano, and FinScore President Diana Krumova.

Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairperson Teresita Herbosa and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario

The Liga ng mga Barangay, through its National President Atty. Edmund Abesamis, also presented a resolution unanimously approved by its National Executive Board adopting KasamaKA as a national grassroots-based advocacy and social movement for financial inclusion.

This initiative will now be cascaded across over 42,000 barangays nationwide as a capacity-building initiative to provide financial education and promote greater access to affordable digital financial services, veering Filipinos away from informal and predatory lenders.