In a consumer culture where trust in products and brands are often built over years of face-to-face interactions and even personalized customer service, persuading suki-loving Filipinos to develop a meaningful understanding of the value of financial technologies or “fintech” platforms can be challenging.
Fintech platform Cashalo states that recent events involving a number of digital lenders that have misused clients’ information underscore the importance of these educational campaigns to drive greater awareness and understanding.
The impact of nefarious actions by a number of bad actors that took to social media to publicly shame their delinquent clients is unacceptable.
“These events highlight the need for greater transparency and supervision in the emerging industry to eliminate predatory behaviour that exploits financially illiterate Filipinos for profit. It is a wakeup call for the private sector to do more to educate Filipinos and empower them to be more vigilant in building a stronger financial future,” Hamilton Angluben, Cashalo’s General Manager, said.
Recognizing this responsibility, Cashalo recently rolled out its nationwide grassroots financial education initiative CashAcademy (CashAcademy.ph) that delivers both offline courses and online modules to reach more underserved communities.
The program has been purpose-built for Filipinos to learn and understand basic financial concepts enabling them to make responsible financial choices and habits, ultimately becoming ‘Pera Experts.’
The slow erosion of trust in technology is not just a sector-specific or country-wide phenomenon. So-called “techlash,” defined as the “strong and widespread negative reaction to the growing power and influence that large technology companies hold,” was a contender for Oxford Dictionary’s 2018 word of the year.
Angluben explained that fintech platforms like Cashalo are founded on the trust consumers place in keeping their information secure and in turn providing them access to better, more reliable, transparent and honest resources and services that improve their lives.
“Cashalo uses the strictest global standards in security, systems, and processes and pride ourselves on building every customer relationship on a strong foundation of mutual trust to create shared value. The actions of a few bad actors, as we have seen recently, have a negative impact on the reputation of the entire industry. This is detrimental to progress that companies like ours, working legitimately as part of the Fintech Alliance (fintechalliance.ph) to serve tens of millions of Filipinos that are unbanked and preyed upon,” Angluben said.