UBX, the leading open finance platform in the Philippines, has joined the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) pilot run of the open finance ecosystem within its sandbox and proof-of-concept framework, pursuant to the administration’s goal of digitally transforming the economy.
Collaborating with industry players from relevant sectors in finance such as electronic money issuers, banks, payment operators, and other financial service providers, the pilot program explores the use of Application Programming Interface (API) technologies to manage the issues of information asymmetry and data aggregations in the delivery of financial products and services tailored for their customers.
With the pilot program, the BSP promises a more “responsive, inclusive, and responsible digital financial ecosystem that is characterized by innovation and permission-driven use of consumer data.”
All activities undertaken by the program will be under the supervision of the Open Finance Oversight Committee Transition Group (OFOC TG) of the BSP.
“UBX was born out of the desire to drive financial inclusion to the unserved and the underserved – both in the consumer and enterprise spaces. This pilot is a huge step forward for the Philippines to achieve its real inclusion goals. As the leading open finance platform in the Philippines, we fully support the open finance pilot program of the BSP to accelerate progress for the Philippine economy,” UBX President and CEO John Januszczak said.
The BSP defines open finance as the extension of data sharing principles, assigning greater control to customers over their own data and enabling third party providers with access to their data across multiple financial products and services.
BSP Governor Felipe Medalla emphasized that introducing Open Finance in the country’s financial system is more about governance, than it is about technology.
“Rest assured that the BSP will continue to strive for a regulatory environment that promotes the right balance between innovation, competition, and consumer protection. We also remain committed to establishing robust frameworks that protect the interest of all stakeholders. With Open Finance PH, we attained a big step in unlocking equal access to financial services for all Filipinos,” Medalla said.
The government’s pilot program is supported by the World Bank, the International Finance Corp., and the Open Banking Exchange, taking best practices from different jurisdictions and tailoring it to the needs of the Philippine market.
With over 200 financial institutions and thousands of agents in its ecosystems, UBX has cemented its position as the leader in open finance in the country, offering the most extensive range of financial services and solutions with a fully-onboarded network of the biggest and most reputable financial institutions and service providers, lenders, and payment channels in the country since its launch in 2018.
Since it was founded in 2018, UBX has built award-winning and globally-recognized agnostic, open and interoperable platforms that can serve as the backbone of Open Finance in the Philippines. has provided its natively open finance technologies to businesses that serve millions of customers daily. It has since grown its customer base by 184x with transaction volumes reaching P41 billion at end-2022.
Its three main verticals–SeekCap, leading online lending marketplace for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), BUx, an end-to-end payment gateway for businesses of all sizes, and i2i, the Philippines’ fastest-growing banking-as-a-service solution–have made a significant impact on uplifting the lives of Filipinos across the archipelago.
UBX has also empowered local government units (LGUs) as well as other agencies to leverage open finance technologies to bring critical government services closer to those who need them. These include the province of Oriental Mindoro, Quezon City, and the Philippine Postal Corp.
“Seeing the BSP share the same goals as UBX brings us much joy. The integration of open finance as part of public policy is a welcome development that we at UBX have hoped and have been working on for so long. Needless to say, we promise to give the BSP our full cooperation and support for the success of this program,” Januszczak said.