Globe to launch services to promote financial inclusion

Globe Telecom Inc. expects to launch new services intended to promote financial inclusion in the country in the fourth quarter, following an investment made by the financial technology company controlled by Alibaba’s Jack Ma in the telco’s Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt).

Globe president and chief executive officer Ernest Cu told reporters Mynt is planning to launch new services by the fourth quarter of the year after Ant Financial Services Group’s strategic investment in Mynt.

“It will be all within the app of GCash. It will be very similar with the Alipay implementation,” he said.

Globe’s micro-payment service GCash allows users to transform their mobile phone into a wallet so they can purchase prepaid load and other goods, pay bills, send money, as well as make donations.

Launched in China in 2004, Alipay is an international payment platform that allows more than 400 million users in the world to make secure online payments.

Last month, Globe announced Ant is investing in Mynt to help accelerate financial inclusion in the country.

The investment is expected to translate to a 45-percent equity stake for Ant in Mynt.

“The Ant deal actually will allow us now to have much more capital in driving financial inclusion through proliferation of mobile payments, micro lending and so on. Ant Financial has a very good history of being able to bring these types of services to scale,” Cu said.

He cited India as an example, where Ant bought into smartphone payments platform PayTM and saw growth in number of users.