FINANCIAL technology is relatively new in the Philippines compared to traditional banking, and yet it has had a significant global impact in a short time. Here in the country, fintech has enhanced thousands of local businesses already. However, many still rely on traditional financial services, like in-branch activities, check-based payments, long processing time and heavy paperwork.
Open banking is among the newest fintech innovations to reach the Philippines. Open banking is a secure way to provide third-party fintech companies with access to financial data and products, enabling them to build new applications and services.
Fundamentally, this is an information technology-infrastructure problem. Having the right infrastructure in place not only enables banks and fintech companies to create more economical, personalized and seamless solutions for SMEs with much ease and speed, it also creates an environment of increased competition, instant access to information and transparency that opens up a world of options for them.