Mynt reaches out to the unbanked via FinTech
There is an urgent call for financial inclusion among a significant portion of the population as the country builds a healthy cash flow in the communities, prompting Mynt, a wholly-owned financial services company of Globe Telecom, to step in and provide the unbanked and underserved sectors a chance to take part of the shared growth for consumers and businesses.
“Mynt sees an opportunity to create a financially inclusive environment that will cater to every person who does not have access to formal financial facilities and services. We already started with the Philippines and will eventually move into the ASEAN region. Right now, there are about 1.5 billion people in the region who are unbanked and underserved and who can benefit from financial technology,” said John Rubio, Mynt President and CEO.
At present, three out of four Filipinos aged 15 years old and above do not have accounts with banks or financial entities, 95% of Filipinos do not have credit cards and 40 % of Philippine municipalities do not have access to physical banks.
“With no credit cards and no banks, many people succumb to informal lenders. Many of them also find it costly to send money. But with FinTech, anyone can have access to consumer loans, micro finance, various payment platforms, domestic and international remittance, and digital bills payments, among others,” Rubio said even as he pointed out that the rapid adoption of FinTech is necessary to create a digital nation which could further help the country move forward.
He added: “Mynt is well placed to solve the problem. By tapping into the wide customer base of Globe, we can immediately provide 57 million Filipinos with mobile money accounts. We can transform over one million retailers and outlet network of Globe nationwide into financial community centers. Telecommunications and Big Data, partnered with technology and platforms may also be used to harvest and create innovative credit scoring models,” he added.
Mynt is currently expanding its mobile money customer base as well as strengthening its remittance and payment value propositions via GCash, the multi-awarded mobile money service of GXchange, Inc., a company being operated by Mynt.
Through GCash, ordinary consumers can easily pay bills, buy prepaid load, as well as send and receive money for a fraction of the cost charged by traditional remittance centers, anytime and anywhere. They can also apply for a debit beep Mastercard which can be used to shop and dine in almost 33 million establishments worldwide, shop online, and pay for MRT/LRT ride.
Mynt is also working to build and scale retail and consumer loan businesses and provide relevant FinTech solutions to organizations through scalable and portable platforms in view of high loan interest rates of up to 240% per annum and inefficient delivery collection methods under traditional channels.
