Voyager Innovations, through its financial technology arm PayMaya Philippines, has secured the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) approval to establish a digital bank targeting the unbanked and underserved market.
The soon-to-be established digital bank, Maya Bank, will provide mobile-first digital banking services on the back of PayMaya’s e-wallet and technology platforms.
It will maximize PayMaya’s extensive Smart Padala agent network and merchant payments processing business to serve more customers.
“ Maya Bank will be a key vehicle in hastening digital adoption among Filipinos through inclusive financial services,” Manuel Pangilinan, chairman of PLDT Inc., Voyager and PayMaya, said in a statement.
Maya Bank’s primary focus will be the largely unbanked and underserved population of consumers and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, Voyager said. “‹It also intends to promote digital financial services among the youth, women, senior citizens and other underbanked segments.
To reach non-digital users, PayMaya has transformed its extensive Smart Padala agent network of 55,000 touchpoints as last-mile finance hubs in grassroots communities. Smart Padala is now present in over 92 percent of all cities and municipalities in the country, serving as cash-in, cash-out, bills payment and remittance centers to the unbanked and underserved.
PayMaya’s total registered users grew by more than 2.5 times since the start of 2020 to 40 million as of end-August 2021.
PayMaya has equipped merchants with payment solutions that accept all kinds of credit, debit and prepaid cards as well as e-wallets for both face-to-face and online transactions.
PayMaya’s payment acceptance platforms power the country’s largest e-commerce, food, retail, transportation, utility companies as well as the Philippine government through its national agencies and local government units.
