GCash PowerPay+ expands financial inclusion in Semirara Island

Empowered by its vision of financial inclusion, GCash, operated by Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), takes another leap towards the realization of its vision by bringing its financial services to far off sites like Semirara Island.

Located at the southern tip of Caluya, Antique, Semirara Island was almost untouched by development with lush vegetation, sandy beaches, and clear skies backdropping the beautiful people of the area.

As such, the closed island is only equipped with a single bank and six automated teller machines, serving over 19,000 residents that are heavily dependent on cash. Communities of workers would struggle to avail basic financial services, such as sending money to their families or even buying prepaid load for their cellphones. Individuals would have to allot time and effort to do something as menial as withdrawing cash to buy basic commodities, such as food, groceries or clothing items.

PSBank’s Sixth Sense Wins at the 2019 PANAta Awards

PSBank recently won a Bronze “Brand Builder” award for Excellence in Brand Positioning at the 2019 PANAta Awards – the premier industry recognition program of the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA) – for its highly-successful Sixth Sense campaign, which effectively positioned how easy and fast it is to get a home loan with the bank.

The short film-driven campaign, which was launched online and on TV, received an abundance of positive feedback for its creative, humorous, and effective attempt to communicate how clients can overcome the fear of a long waiting time for loan approval, through PSBank’s one-day credit decision capability.

Act now, act fast: WWF PH, GCash call for participation of Filipinos in fight for PH forests

Over the last couple of years, the Philippines has been experiencing an alarming decrease in forest area. Due to rampant illegal logging and the lack of funds to better secure protected areas, the countries forests are going nude. 

Each year, based on data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), around 47,000 hectares of forest cover is lost, which is equivalent to approximately 1.2 million hectares of deforested land in a hundred years. This translates to about 24 percent in deforestation rate, one of the fastest in the world. 

These figures may sound too statistical, but they are a constant and stark reminder for Filipinos of the state of Philippine forests. This is also a wakeup call for everyone that while the government pursues efforts to create a greener country, a great amount of work is still up ahead, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

CIMB Bank Announces 500,000th Customer Expands strategic partnership with GCash

CIMB Bank Philippines (CIMB Bank PH) today announced that it has garnered 500,000 customers, approximately six months after opening its doors for business in the Philippines. The milestone was reached anchored on a strong proposition of co-creation and partnership between CIMB Bank and GCash.

The all-digital, mobile-first CIMB Bank PH, was launched in early 2019 with a goal of bringing a unique and differentiated banking proposition to Filipinos. Anchored on a DNA of strong strategic partnerships and solving customer pain points digitally, CIMB Bank PH had forged a partnership with GCash, to allow GCash’s customers direct, paperless and seamless access to savings account services, a product termed GSave. GCash is an epayments platform owned by Mynt, the revolutionary fintech startup of Globe Telecom, Ayala Corporation and Ant Financial, an affiliate of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group.

PSBank’s Sixth Sense Wins at the 2019 PANAta Awards

PSBank recently won a Bronze “Brand Builder” award for Excellence in Brand Positioning at the 2019 PANAta Awards – the premier industry recognition program of the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA) – for its highly-successful Sixth Sense campaign, which effectively positioned how easy and fast it is to get a home loan with the bank.

The short film-driven campaign, which was launched online and on TV, received an abundance of positive feedback for its creative, humorous, and effective attempt to communicate how clients can overcome the fear of a long waiting time for loan approval, through PSBank’s one-day credit decision capability.

ENCASH and Ayannah launch the Panalo Express SuperPOS, ushering in a new era of Fintech for Financial Inclusion

ENCASH President Juan Miguel Mapa and Panalo Express
President Ian Atienza

ENCASH, the country’s first and leading non-bank ATM deployer and Ayannah, one of the country’s leading providers of fintech applications recently partnered to launch the Panalo Express SuperPOS, a new product that aims to make electronic financial services more accessible and affordable for both banked and unbanked Filipinos. 

The Panalo Express SuperPOS is the very first electronic POS device in the country that allows agents (retailers or enterprising individuals) to process both cash in and cash out services. Through the ATM technology of ENCASH, cash withdrawals will now be possible through the same POS device that can process prepaid mobile “load” top ups, Smart Padala acceptance and encashment, PayMaya, GCash, WeChatPay and AliPay top ups, Bayad Center bills payment as well as cash remittance through Panalo Express’ agent network and Ayannah’s growing network of leading remittance companies which now includes LBC, MLhuillier, Tambunting, Raquel Pawnshop and RD Pawnshop.

BPI opens biggest flagship branch in Metro Manila

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) today formally opened its biggest flagship branch in

Metro Manila to date-the BPI Shangrila-Shaw branch and Preferred Center in Mandaluyong

City, as it marks 168 years of building a better Philippines.

The new flagship branch follows the design of BPI's other flagship branches in Ayala Insular

and Makati Stock Exchange. BPI Shangri-la Shaw showcases the most modern and innovative designs that will complement the Bank's aim to provide trusted financial advice, and seamless and convenient client experience.

"This new flagship branch, like similar ones in Metro Manila, represents how technology and

brick and mortar can be combined to enhance the customer experience. Today's Filipino customer wants and deserves more, and a modern branch like this one is one way that we can respond," said President and CEO Cezar P. Consing.

Mastercard and Zoho Expand Access to Tools to Help Small Business Owners Around the World Thrive

Robust solution suite offers resources to help small businesses increase efficiency and grow faster

Mastercard today announced it is expanding its partnership with Zoho to bring small business owners around the world a comprehensive array of products and services to make running their enterprise easier, more efficient and more profitable.

Every business is on a quest to increase efficiency and productivity; for small business owners it can be a matter of survival. With Zoho’s platform, Mastercard is able to offer its small business customers access to a suite of marketing, accounting and CRM tools to automate and digitize time-intensive, paper-based processes. Scaling its existing partnership from India to the rest of the world, Mastercard and Zoho are enabling simpler business operations for SMBs globally.

7 Things You Need To Know About General Insurance

Because it pays to be prepared for life’s surprises, the Mercantile way!

In disaster-prone countries such as the Philippines, you can never be too prepared for unforeseen circumstances. With every unexpected thing that can really set you back, having non-life insurance is your best solution to rebuild assets that are accidentally destroyed or affected by natural disasters.