Analysis of the FinTech Landscape in the Philippines

Francis Mark A. Quimba, Mark Anthony A. Barral and Jean Clarisse T. Carlos

No DP 2021-29, Discussion Papers from Philippine Institute for Development Studies

Abstract: FinTech in the Philippines has been gaining more attention in recent years, especially during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns are prevalent and cashless payment methods are encouraged to limit exposure to health risks from face-to-face and cash-based transactions. Digital payments and digital engagements of both men and women have increased, and more and more bank and nonbank financial service providers have entered the digital space, providing more diversified financial products and services through various platforms. Despite these developments, however, the industry financial inclusion in the Philippines remains lagging behind compared to ASEAN neighbors. In addition, FinTech has faced concerns pertaining to the reliability and consistency not only of the systems but also of the regulations. With the financial sector being heavily disrupted by digitalization, there is more to look into than defining FinTech elements and considering it as just another service innovation. Defining the interplay across the stages of FinTech transformation does not seem to be well explored in the Philippines. This paper explores the state of the industry and investigates how to support the development of the ecosystem to ensure that FinTech helps in the achievement of the country’s development goals. This paper finds that the Philippines has a strong FinTech industry as indicated by an increasing number of FinTechs (particularly in payments, lending, and banking technology verticals) and increasing capitalization. The FinTech industry can support the country’s goals of financial inclusion but there needs to be an improvement in areas of availability of talent and credit for the sector. Comments to this paper are welcome within 60 days from the date of posting. Email publications@pids.gov.ph

Keywords: business models; financial literacy; financial inclusion; e-money; fintech; FinTech ecosystem; lending (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fle, nep-pay and nep-sea
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.pids.gov.ph/publication/discussion-pap ... e-in-the-philippines (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2021-29

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Philippine Institute for Development Studies Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael Ralph M. Abrigo ().