CEBU, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved the rollout of finance app operator Gcash to start the beta launch of Gcash Overseas.
With this, Gcash can now be used abroad with international SIM cards, making the e-wallet, so far, the first and only in the country to do so.
BSP’s approval allows Filipinos in Japan, Australia, and Italy to sign up for Gcash even without a Philippine SIM.
“We continue to make a difference in Filipinos’ lives by making financial services easier and more accessible to our now 76 million-strong registered users. With around 10 million Filipinos living abroad, we want them to also be able to take advantage of GCash services even as they use international SIMs. As more people put their trust in GCash, we strive to remove more barriers and create a better experience for all,” said Martha Sazon, GCash president and chief executive officer (CEO).
Under the beta launch, only the first 1,000 users from Japan, Australia, and Italy can access GCash with an international SIM card. Once they’re fully verified, Filipinos overseas regardless of their SIM card can begin signing up for GCash and support their families back home by sending money for free (GCash-to-GCash), paying for bills on time, and instantly buying them load credits with just a few taps on the app.
The beta mode will run for a limited time only and the full launch is expected later this year. GCash has also been doubling down on its international expansion thanks to its partnership with the global payments platform, Alipay+. Aside from GCash Overseas, it can now be used to pay in select merchants across countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Qatar as well as top European destinations like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy.
GCash offers its users a wide variety of accessible financial products and services, such as Send Money, Buy Load, and Pay Bills. Likewise, users can explore other innovative financial services to jumpstart their journey toward their financial goals through GSave, GInsure, and GInvest.
GCash, valued at over $2 billion, has sustained its market leadership, growing to 76 million registered users, 5.8 million merchants and social sellers, and 855 GLife merchant partners.
Amidst its dominance as an e-wallet with over 5x more active users than the nearest e-wallet based on statistics from reputable third-party provider data.ai.
GCash has likewise pioneered and scaled digital financial services, across credit, savings, wealth, and insurance products. It has disbursed over ?57 billion of loans life-to-date across two million unique borrowers. These milestones were achieved with a suite of products spanning revolving credit lines, cash loans, and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), providing loans to more Filipinos who need it the most, backed by its proprietary credit score.