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Published August 24, 2022, 6:10 PM
by Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat
Bank-Genie, the Singapore headquartered fast growing technology company, vowed to continue providing low cost technology solutions to ensure digitalization of Philippine banks.
In a statement, Bank-Genie co-founder Ram Sharma said, “We believe technology is the solution to enable financial inclusion & more productive society in markets like Philippines.”
The tech company has successfully deployed its technology solution for banks including UnionBank, East West Bank, PSBank and Land Bank and many others enabling digital transformation and frictionless banking.
Bank-Genie provided low cost technology solutions enabling banks to digitize the retail banking and consumer banking services. With Bank-Genie technology, banks can open branches that provide a suite of financial services with just “a tablet, a small Bluetooth printer and the card reader.
With large rural population and infrastructure gaps, it is estimated that roughly 7 in 10 Filipinos are financially excluded. According to data from the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP), more than half of borrowers source their loans from informal sources. Lack of access to financing is also a key barrier to the growth of SMEs and MSMEs, especially rural-based small enterprises.
Without access to financial services, the cycle of poverty is hard to break. Bank-Genie co-founder Raghu Nandan explained, “Without a credit history, borrowers cannot secure loans from the banks, so what people do instead is they go and take a loan from a loan shop or a moneylender, which means that they have to pay very high interest. Which also means that already poor people gets even poorer.”
Bank co-founder Ram Sharma advised, “We believe technology that can be deployed at scale with minimal costs is the key driver to address the problem of the unbanked.”
Bank-Genie co-founders Raghu Nandan and Sharma share their enthusiasm for the potential power of technology to bring banking services to millions of people in remote parts of a country as vast as Philippines. Bank-Genie’s technology platform is one way of overcoming the costs factor that inhibits banks from serving remote communities.
Recently, Bank-Genie unveiled its big expansion plans for the Philippines. Its technology team is very keen in enabling digital transformation for savings and community banks and in curbing the adverse cycle of financial exclusion. The team is working actively to expand its headcount in Manila as it plans on launching a range of new products in the coming months.
“Our vision has always been to bring the bank at every doorstep and democratise financial services to make it accessible to every citizen of the world,” said Ram Sharma.
Bank-Genie is backed by institutional investors: including Dutch development bank FMO. This technology company has partnered with more than 30 client banks and financial institutions across Africa and Southeast Asia, with 13 client banks in the Philippines alone.
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