Tech This Week: Motorcycle-hailing App Joins FinTech Philippines

If you've tried paying bills online, transfer or lend money using your mobile phone then you're part of the rising technology called FinTech, short for financial technology. Not only start-up companies even huge brands are part of the industry called fintech.

Fintech includes a huge range of technologies, products and even business models to improve financial services. Remember a video I posted on our page about a tutorial on how you can borrow money using only your mobile phone. At the moment we got 12 thousand video views, hundreds of comments and inquiries from people who are interested on how it works. You can check out the video here.

Meanwhile, motorcycle-hailing app Angkas has joined the Fintech Philippines Association (FPh) as advisor to the board of trustees. This was announced in the April edition of FPh’s monthly forum held recently at The Ark in Makati City.

Dubbed the “Fintech April Mixer,” the forum saw major players in financial technology and related industries coming together to discuss the role of transport and logistics in the rising e-commerce industry as well as issues related to water technology and social enterprises.

George Royeca, Head of Regulatory and Public Affairs of Angkas

George Royeca, Head of Regulatory and Public Affairs of Angkas, the ride-hailing app that changed the way people think about public transport in the Philippines, led the panelists in the discussion of their vision of a more financially inclusive country where smaller entrepreneurs can use their platform to scale up their businesses.

“Fintech and e-commerce are largely interdependent because fintech provides online payment platforms that allow e-commerce to thrive,” Royeca notes. “Without fintech and payment innovations, global e-commerce will not grow as much as it did in recent years,” he adds. "The teching up of small e-commerce players in the country is something that we in Angkas, in our capacity as advisor to Fintech Philippines, will recommend as a priority undertaking for the near future,” Royeca reveals.

Fintech Philippines executive director and trustee Amor Maclang, in turn, underscored fintech’s role in shaping global e-commerce. “Fintech Philippine’s Association strives to promote all e-commerce players, and recognize all contributions to global and micro e-commerce players by creating access to the constant development and improvement of online payment systems,” she stresses. “Our mission in Fintech Philippines is the democratization and access to the technologies by allowing online merchants and service providers to also target as many people as possible through safe and secure means,” she adds.

The association’s board of trustees was also presented during the forum. The FPh board is composed of Justo Ortiz of Uniobank as chairman, Mark Vernon of TagCash as vice chairman and treasurer, Mark Gorriceta of Gorriceta Africa Cauton & Saavedra as corporate secretary, and Amor Maclang of GeiserMaclang Marketing Communications Inc. as executive director and trustee.

Arvie De Vera of Unionbank, Edison Tsai of Seedin Technologies Inc., Ida Tiongson of Opal Portfolio Investments, and Gerry Cruz are the trustees. The Fintech Philippines Association is the largest and most inclusive association in the Philippines that promotes digital entrepreneurship, among other things.

We can expect more updates from Angkas now that they joined Fintech Philippines Association. How about you, what are your thoughts about financial technology?