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SINGAPORE-HEADQUARTERED UNO Digital Bank and Trusting Social, an artificial intelligence (AI) fintech company, recently announced a strategic partnership to unlock credit access to Filipino consumers. By offering a frictionless and friendly lending experience, the partnership aims to empower traditionally underserved citizens and bring them into the formal financial ecosystem.
The strategic partnership would leverage Trusting Social’s expertise in AI-led customer onboarding solutions, including credit scoring. UNO’s new digital banking platform could help build a more financially inclusive banking landscape in the Philippines. Manish Bhai, chief executive, UNO Digital Bank discussed with The Manila Times how the partnership with Trusting Social would allow unbanked Filipinos access to formal lending services.
The Manila Times (TMT): Please describe the business of UNO Digital Bank and its presence in the Philippines (if any).
Manish Bhai: UNO Digital Bank is a credit-led full-spectrum digital bank, licensed under the Digital Banking Licence framework of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). We are one of the six banks that have been approved under BSP’s Digital Banking framework.
Ultimately, we aim to help close the financial inclusion gap in the Philippines by leveraging the country’s high smartphone penetration rate. Tapping digital technology to make banking simple and accessible, UNO Digital Bank would enable any Filipino with a smartphone to open a bank account and have access to all the financial products we offer, using one app and one card to transact and meet all their financial needs.
UNO Digital Bank is fully digital. We have no physical branches, and our entire infrastructure is built on the cloud. We operate independently along with local partners in the Philippines, and without the encumbrance of a traditional bank.
TMT: What is the business of Trusting Social in the Philippines and the extent of its presence in the country?
Bhai: Trusting Social is a fintech company that uses advanced AI and alternative data sources to assess the credit profiles of consumers in emerging markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, India and the Philippines. The company aims to score over 1 billion consumers and create a platform to provide credit to underserved individuals.
Trusting Social Philippines was founded in 2018 and in 2020; it launched its credit scoring services to local lenders following going live with the country’s largest telco Globe. Today, it offers comprehensive customer acquisition, onboarding and underwriting AI-driven solutions in deep partnerships with lenders, such as with UNO.
TMT: How did the UNO Digital and Trusting Social partnership come about? When will it be formally launched in the country?
Bhai: UNO Digital Bank is focused on connecting with unbanked consumers in the Philippines, a market with a high GDP growth rate and a large unbanked population. Trusting Social could help us achieve this goal by connecting with unbanked individuals who may lack money, have insufficient documentary requirements or simply refuse to open a bank account. They created an AI-powered credit scoring system using telco data that enables lenders to reach a significant portion of the population that is typically overlooked by traditional financial institutions.
Last October 2022, we launched the UNO Digital Bank mobile app during the Philippine Fintech Festival. The version we currently have offers high-rate savings and time deposit products that could help our customers take the first step in their financial journey. The second step is to provide additional financial products and services such as loans and insurance. These are in the pipeline of products we will be launching in Q1 of 2023.
TMT: Please elaborate more on how the partnership will help bring credit closer to the unbanked population.
Bhai: In 2022, the Philippines had a GDP growth rate of 7.4 percent and was the second-fastest growing economy in Southeast Asia, only behind Vietnam. But the country has a large unbanked population, with 70 percent of adults not having a bank account and only 53 percent (or 41 million) having access to basic deposit or e-money services as of 2021. Some of the reasons that people remain unbanked are that they lack enough money, lack documentary requirements, or they simply refuse or see no value in opening a bank account.
UNO Digital Bank’s mission is to make financial products and services more accessible to Filipinos so they could enjoy the same benefits that are readily available to their more affluent countrymen who are banked. On the other hand, Trusting Social is committed to addressing the lack of credit scoring and limited access to financial services by providing innovative solutions for consumers in the region. Through our partnership, we would be able to extend the credit services of UNO Digital Bank to a wider range of customers to include those who don’t have bank accounts and formal credit scores.
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