RCBC, Fintech leader draws WTO attention to 80×80 Philippine agenda
GENEVA, Switzerland — Lito Villanueva, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC)’s executive vice president and chief innovations and inclusion officer and founding chairman of Fintech Alliance.PH, turned global attention at the World Trade Organization toward the Philippines’ ambitious agenda of onboarding 80% of Filipino adults with digital transactional accounts and 80% of retail payments transformed into digital by 2028.
Speaking at the WTO Committee on Trade in Financial Services (CTFS) Thematic Session on Payments Interoperability and Remittances, Villanueva plotted the Philippines’ collective vision of elevated inclusion and innovation within digital payments after successfully pivoting digital finance payments from a mere 1% in 2013 to 57% by 2024.
“We envision 80% of Filipino adults with digital transactional accounts and 80% of retail payments conducted digitally by 2028,” Villanueva emphasized.
“This roadmap is not just a policy paper. It is a compass. It gives industry players the certainty to innovate, investors the confidence to commit, and consumers the assurance that their trust will not be misplaced,” Villanueva stressed.
Villanueva said that as the Philippines gears up for becoming a $1-trillion economy by 2030, digital finance players are pivoting to a 4T Framework — focused on pillars of Tech for Good, Tech for Growth, Tech for Trust and Tech for All, to sustain a robust digital financial infrastructure for decades to come.
“What sustains transformation is values. That is why FinTech Alliance.PH has introduced the 4Ts Framework, a movement for building strong, inclusive, and trusted payment systems,” Villanueva said.
He further elaborated the renewed blueprint of Filipino digital finance companies by spotlighting the efforts of RCBC to go beyond the Philippines to capture a wider market of underserved Filipinos with a strong appetite for convenient digital experiences such as enabling Filipino to own a US bank account through a partnership with Meridian, money transfers with Visa Direct, and bolstering campaigns with migrant-centric government institutions.
“Beyond this, RCBC also works with Philippine government agencies such as the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) to extend digital financial inclusion to over 12 million Filipinos abroad. Through easier onboarding and financial literacy, OFWs can now access withdrawals, deposits, transfers, bills payment, and remittances through our all in one RCBC Pulz app, without the need to fly home,” Villanueva expounded.
The executive concluded his speech by emphasizing the value of exchange amongst practitioners in the region such as dialogues with transformative leaders such as Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, which services 540 million customers and 44 million merchants in India’s booming economy; and collaborations with advocates such as Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health who called on leaders at the Singapore FinTech Festival to look to the Philippines as a model for financial inclusion.
Villanueva reminded his colleagues and peers in the global community that technology is sustained for its social value, and “trust” remains to be the most valuable currency, “Technology only matters if it empowers people, and empowerment only endures when it is built on trust.”
He spoke alongside other global leaders around the theme “Creating Robust Digital Payment Systems”. He joined Paul Bedford, Senior Manager for Strategy and Policy Development, Payments Directorate, Bank of England; Wenhui Yang, General Manager, Tencent Financial Technology, Asia Pacific; Sohail Javaad Syed, Executive Director, State Bank of Pakistan; Diana Zamora, Director, Government Affairs & Policy, Mastercard; Álvaro Castro, Partner, Damma Legal Advisors; and Matthew Swinehart, Managing Director, Rock Creek Global Advisors LLC.
Source: Philstar Global