In a time of pandemic, fintechs are providing a great support to the community, a bank official said recently.
Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) chief transformation officer and chief technology and operations officer Henry Aguda said the Philippines has a lot of fintechs offering various solutions for the public’s needs as the country battles the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Think outside of the box, lean on technology,” Aguda said in a webinar last week titled “Survive, Adapt and Evolve” featuring transformation leaders from banks and fintech companies.
Fintech or financial technology is an industry that uses new technology and innovation to compete in the traditional financial services market.
While other financial institutions are wary of fintechs, UnionBank has a different strategy : engage fintechs because they too need a partner bank.
Fintechs in fact are a centerpiece of the bank’s digital transformation, as evidenced by its application programming interface (API) Developer Portal where developers can invent new apps.
Meanwhile, Aguda also emphasized the need to future-proof the business and be able to withstand disruption such as the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.
He cited how UnionBank’s transformation journey played a big role in the time of COVID-19.
“That has impacted the way our users have been using our services, and from the get-go we didn’t lose a bit, because the digital infrastructure has always been there to serve the public,” Aguda said.
He added that the bank is seeing a spike in its digital transactions, as he encouraged the public to avail of digital banking services for safer and more secure banking transactions at this time.
