GCash Says Digital Banking No Silver Bullet to Fintech Business Success

GCash remains unfazed over its closest competitor’s move to offer digital banking and cryptocurrency trading.

“We don’t believe that having a digital banking license is a silver bullet or magic. It’s not like a signboard that you just turn on then expect everyone to come in. There’s real work to acquire users and educate them on more complex financial services,” said Martha Sazon, GCash President and CEO.

At present, one in every five banked Filipinos has a GSave account. GSave was created by GCash and CIMB Bank, one of Southeast Asia’s largest banks, to address the population’s need for more accessible financial services. GSave is also set to onboard the Bank of the Philippine Islands to give consumers more savings and financial product choices.

Likewise, GCash has partnered with ATRAM, the leading independent asset manager in the Philippines, for its GInvest investment solutions. Now, 77% of the country’s Unit Investment Trust Fund (UITF) accounts are on GInvest.

GCash also created an insurance marketplace with GInsure, where customers can avail of over 24 different traditional life and non-life insurance policies from some of the country’s biggest insurance companies. Today, 1 out of 3 traditional life insurance policies in the Philippines are purchased from GInsure.

“We have partnered with the most innovative and the biggest institutions– CIMB, BPI, ATRAM– and various insurance companies. So while others are just about to start providing financial services, one-third of our GCash user base are already subscribed to at least one of our financial services products,” Sazon added.

On the cryptocurrency front, GCash is already available as a mode of payment across several exchanges such as Binance, Philippine Digital Assets Exchange (PDAX), and Paxfulmake, with many more to be added soon. This makes it more convenient for users to pay for their crypto transactions.

“We’re already offering up payment options for various crypto sites. And I think we lead that space. In terms of offering crypto inside our app, we’re making sure that the services we provide within the crypto space are the relevant ones and at a rate that is reasonable. We are working on it, and we’ll be able to offer what we think is what the consumers are really looking for,” she added.