Unionbank’s fintech subsidiary saw exponential growth in all verticals in 2022

UBX Philippines Corp., the financial technology (fintech) arm of the Aboitiz family, said last Tuesday it closed 2022 with “exponential growth” across all its verticals.

John Januszczak, the company’s president, said over the last three years, UBX’S customer base ballooned by 184 times, bringing its transaction volumes to a growth rate of 411 times to P41 billion at end-2022.

As of end-december, it has 230,000 business-to-business customers that “serve millions of local customers daily.”

“These numbers reflect our commitment to our goal of financial inclusion. Our growth in 2022, amid a country recovering from the pandemic, is consistent with our performance over the years. We are confident that we will continue treading on a growth path this year, as we ramp up our open finance initiatives and introduce new digital financial solutions,” Januszczak said.

Broken down, i2i, the bankingas-a-service platform of UBX, recorded a 132-percent growth in its transaction volume as of end-2022. The platform has over 10,000 touchpoints all over the country, providing basic banking services in rural and far-flung areas.

Meanwhile, UBX’S online lending platform “Seekcap,” has processed over P14 billion of business loans in 2022 from more than 65,000 micro, small, medium-sized enterprises (MSMES).

The platform bridges lenders and MSMES online. It is the Philippines’s first same-day approval digital lending marketplace.

The end-to-end payment gateway of Unionbank’s wholly-owned subsidiary, BUX, recorded over 100,000 signups from MSMES, which use the platform for digital payments.

Januszczak attributed UBX’S growth to its “extensive range of embedded financial services and solutions and a network of the biggest and most reputable financial institutions and service providers, insurers, lenders and payment channels in the country.”

New partner

AIM Global, a direct-selling company of food supplements and herbal products with five million distributors across the globe, has a local network of more than three million distributors. On its 15th year, the company opened its newest subsidiary Orbix Victus International (OVI) as part of its expansion.

Orbix Victus International (OVI) not only offers health and wellness products but also promotes the awareness on financial literacy to its distributors and add more value by opening access to its people into digital financial services thru UBX.

“Partnering with UBX assures us that we get nothing short of the best digital solutions to expand our suite of products. With its status as the country’s leader in open finance, we are excited to learn the tricks of the trade and expand our knowledge in helping more Filipinos nationwide.” AIM Global and OVI’S CEO eduardo Cabantog said.

The mobile app will be launched within the first quarter of 2023.

Last year, UBX partnered with various players in different industries such as the metaverse, insurance, the women’s sector and even government institutions to promote financial inclusion.

As part of its commitment to promote genuine financial inclusion, UBX is open to partnering with other organizations to develop tailor-fit digital financial solutions to help bridge the financial and social gaps.

“Our partnership with AIM Global and OVI signals that more and more organizations beyond finance are interested and willing to support the goal of promoting financial and social inclusion. We are committed to working together with more partners to push this agenda further so that more Filipinos will be able to participate in and leverage the financial systems,” Gorospe said.

Future

UBX also doubled down on government partnerships in 2022.

It launched the Digital Transformation ng Pilipinas (Digipinas) Initiative, a multistakeholder advocacy group that aims to deliver digital transformation to local government units, through digital tools and solutions

UBX also spearheaded the creation of the Open Finance Foundation, which advocates the adoption, education and consumer research and protection needed to realize the benefits of Open Finance.

The foundation brings together relevant stakeholders, including other financial institutions, government agencies, non-government organizations and more to create initiatives that will support the development of open finance in the country.

UBX was also tapped by the Philippine Postal Corp. to co-create Project Kasama Lahat, an initiative that aims to convert post offices into digital financial hubs to bring financial services closer to the masses.

“We believe in a future that is marked by financial and social inclusion. We at UBX are committed to our goal of including everyone in the financial systems. And we plan to accelerate our initiatives this year by strengthening our partnerships with the government, private sector and civic organizations,” Januszczak said.