Voyager Innovations, through its financial technology arm PayMaya Philippines, has obtained the approval of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to establish a digital bank.
Maya Bank will leverage PayMaya’s successful track record at being at the forefront of accelerating financial inclusion in the country. PayMaya is the only financial technology company in the Philippine that operates an end-to-end FinServ (financial services) ecosystem with its widely-used e-wallet, the most extensive on-ground digital remittance network through Smart Padala, and the largest non-bank merchant payments processing business.
Its main focus will be the largely unbanked and underserved population of consumers and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). It also intends to promote digital financial services among the youth, women, senior citizens, and other underbanked segments.
The BSP earlier announced that it would limit the digital bank licenses to seven, with six now granted, including Maya Bank’s. The window for submission for new applicants closed last August 31.
PayMaya and the soon-to-be-established Maya Bank will spearhead Voyager’s digital financial services thrust, supporting the BSP’s goals of digitizing 50% of the total volume of retail payments and expanding the financially included to 70% of Filipino Adults by 2023.
In June 2021, Voyager raised an additional US$167 million to accelerate the growth of PayMaya’s digital payments business and expand to new and inclusive products, such as credit, insurance, savings, and investments, via the soon-to-be established digital bank. Voyager counts PLDT Inc. (PLDT) (NYSE: PHI) (PSE: TEL), PH’s largest integrated telecommunications company and digital services provider, KKR, a global investment firm, Tencent, a technology company in China, and World Bank’s IFC Asset Management Company (IFC AMC) through its IFC Emerging Asia Fund and IFC Financial Growth Fund, among its shareholders.
As a neo bank, Maya Bank will provide mobile-first digital banking services on the back of PayMaya’s widely trusted e-wallet and proven technology platforms. It will maximize PayMaya’s extensive Smart Padala agent network and leading merchant payments processing business to serve more customers and grow the digital financial ecosystem.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
