Maya Bank,

Maya Credit is meant for general purpose loans, Mr. Madrid said. He added that they are looking to craft specific loan products, like buy now, pay later options, as they gather more information about their users’ needs.

The digital bank also wants to cater to small businesses’ need for credit, Mr. Madrid said.

“We want to accelerate the success of our merchants and our small businesses so they can…make us their partner in growing their businesses,” he said.

Meanwhile, the digital bank’s savings account offering called Maya Savings will offer an introductory deposit rate of 6% annually, the highest in the market to date.

Users can also buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency starting at P1 via the app’s Maya Crypto feature. Mr. Baidwan said they hope this could help Filipinos learn about and test their appetite for cryptocurrencies.

“We’ve introduced it in such a way that is instant, intuitive and they can sign in with low balances. What we want is for people to start saving, investing, but we also want to make sure that they’re doing with established [crypto]currencies, and they do it in a way that they can do it with very small amounts,” Mr. Baidwan said.

Meanwhile, PayMaya’s e-wallet and bills payment features are now under Maya Wallet.

Voyager Innovations, Inc., owner of PayMaya and Maya Bank, in April raised an additional $210 million from its latest funding round to fund the launch of its digital lender.

Maya Bank is one of the six entities that were granted digital banking licenses by the BSP. The central bank has imposed a moratorium on the grant of online banking permits as it wants to ensure healthy competition among the new players and monitor their development.

Digital banks, which offer their services via online platforms and are not required to set up physical branches, are expected to help the BSP achieve its twin goals to have 50% of retail payments done digitally and 70% of adult Filipinos become part of the formal financial system by 2023.

PLDT, Inc. is Voyager’s main shareholder. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. —