The Philippines’ leading mobile wallet GCash reported that it expects to exceed its inclusive growth targets on the full array of financial services it offers in the country, spanning credit, savings, insurance, loans, and investments. It also announced that it is doubling down on lending as Filipinos move towards digital finance. Having the first mover advantage on digital financial services, GCash is poised to offer more innovations leading to finance for all Filipinos
Its Assets Under Management (AUM) for its GSave product has grown to over PHP 9 billion, from PHP 5 billion in 2020 – almost double in just 6 months – while its GInvest product, just launched last year with 4 new fund categories, has helped GCash immediately capture 70% of the domestic market of total UITF accounts in just 6 months.
GInsure, GCash’s microinsurance offering launched in-app in 2020, now accounts for a third of all new insurance policies issued in the Philippines. This happened in less than a year.
Lastly, the company’s in-house lending service GCredit, disburses PHP 1 billion worth of loans a month on average, with PHP 15 billion worth disbursed as of June 2021. It also provides the best repayment rates, and locally, has the lowest past due and non-performing loans. Partnered with CIMB Bank, a neobank, GCredit works like a pre-approved credit card to make QR and online purchases, as well as bills payment, without traditional documentation requirements, and extends 30-day credit to GCash users.
GCash is also piloting GLoan, a new service that allows qualified users to borrow as much as PHP 25,000, with repayment spread over 12 months. The service is doing well and has shown the fastest growing revenue for its category.
In addition, GCash seeks to launch a “Buy Now, Pay Later” service in 2021, aimed at addressing financial challenges encountered by its users during the pandemic and beyond.
“As a driver of financial inclusion, our objective is clear, and that is to ease the friction being experienced by unbanked and underserved Filipinos. That said, we are also a highly collaborative institution. Financial organizations that share the same vision are welcome to partner with us; we seek to enable rather than compete with them as we work towards financial inclusion” said Martha Sazon, President and CEO of GCash.
As a mobile wallet, GCash’s versatility lies within its platform approach. This allows the company to partner with other financial institutions in offering their products to its 46 million and growing digital-savvy user base, whereas digital banks are restricted to their own services. Aside from the neo-bank CIMB Bank partnering with GCash for GSave and GCredit, Cebuana Lhuillier, AXA (through MicroEnsure), and Singaporean insurtech Singlife, have likewise partnered with GCash as insurance providers through GInsure.
“We have enjoyed massive growth in our financial services through innovative fintech solutions and strategic partnerships, regardless of licenses. We also have the edge on experience and technology as we’ve been promoting financial services since we started. We have a very positive growth outlook in the years to come,” Sazon added.
GCash has been advancing the financial services front since it launched GCredit in 2018. The company is continuously investing heavily on technology and infrastructure that will address Filipino financial needs. In fact, it developed the country’s first credit scoring mechanism called GScore, which is a core component of its financial services qualification process.
The mobile wallet also has been leading financial process transformation in the Philippines, as it maintains a robust digital end-to-end application process that does away with physical documents. This is consistently experienced in the entirety of the GCash app.
