FINTQnologies Corp | Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards
 


KasamaKA


FINTQnologies Corp


 
Financial inclusion caravan held at Cuenca, a fourth-class municipality in Batangas. A Board resolution by the Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas--the association of over 42,000 barangays--the Philippines’ smallest political unit-- has adopted KasamaKA, a revolutionary and pioneering grassroots-led program aimed at accelerating financial inclusion in the Philippines. Most recently, the League of Provinces, the association of 81 provincial governors nationwide, also passed a resolution adopting KasamaKA as a national movement for financial inclusion and social advocacy for inclusive growth.

INTRODUCTION

KasamaKA brings a complete suite of affordable and relevant digital financial services to the Filipino population, majority of whom remain unbanked and underserved by traditional financial institutions. The goal is simple: enable formal financial institutions to reach the wider population, effectively accelerating people’s inclusion into the formal financial system by steering them away from informal lenders and loan sharks.

With the aim of building a registered critical mass of 30 million enterprising Filipinos, KasamaKA was born to address two of the biggest barriers to inclusion: low financial literacy among Filipinos and provide them with alternative and affordable access to finance. KasamaKA brings a complete suite of affordable and relevant digital financial services to the Filipino population, majority of whom remain unbanked and underserved by traditional financial institutions. The goal is simple: enable formal financial institutions to reach the wider population, effectively accelerating people’s inclusion into the formal financial system by steering them away from informal lenders and loan sharks. KasamaKA brings a complete suite of affordable and relevant digital financial services to the Filipino population, majority of whom remain unbanked and underserved by traditional financial institutions. The goal is simple: enable formal financial institutions to reach the wider population, effectively accelerating people’s inclusion into the formal financial system by steering them away from informal lenders and loan sharks.

With the aim of building a registered critical mass of 30 million enterprising Filipinos, KasamaKA was born to address two of the biggest barriers to inclusion: low financial literacy among Filipinos and provide them with alternative and affordable access to finance.

KasamaKA champions sachet financial services offering unbanked and underserved Filipinos with microsavings, microlending, microinsurance, and microinvestment products with alternative credit scoring and eKYC features. This includes farm-to-marketplace digital agricultural value chain service called Accelerated Growth and Rural Inclusion or AGRI. With the aim of building a registered critical mass of 30 million enterprising Filipinos, KasamaKA was born to address two of the biggest barriers to inclusion: low financial literacy among Filipinos and provide them with alternative and affordable access to finance. KasamaKA champions sachet financial services offering unbanked and underserved Filipinos with microsavings, microlending, microinsurance, and microinvestment products with alternative credit scoring and eKYC features. This includes farm-to-marketplace digital agricultural value chain service called Accelerated Growth and Rural Inclusion or AGRI. KasamaKA champions sachet financial services offering unbanked and underserved Filipinos with microsavings, microlending, microinsurance, and microinvestment products with alternative credit scoring and eKYC features. This includes farm-to-marketplace digital agricultural value chain service called Accelerated Growth and Rural Inclusion or AGRI.

FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY

FINTQnologies Corp. was able to capitalize on its telco assets to create a mobile-based digital referral program and ultimately, make available affordable “sacheted” financial products via agent banking utilizing over 1.2 million sari-sari stores (mom-and-pop stores) nationwide.

KasamaKA’s approach to financial inclusion is unique in the sense that the program builds up the financial literacy of Filipinos not primarily through sit-down trainings, but through an innovative digital referral program. Through a simple text- or Internet-based registration, ordinary Filipinos can become KasamaKA members who can refer their friends, families, and community members to learn about the alternative financial products offered by FINTQ.

ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT

Most Extensive Digital Footprint with
  • 100% provinces covered,
  • 80% of borrowers from provinces
  • 26% of borrowers from low-income areas;
  • 47% applied outside banking hours; and
  • Disbursed in excess of US$680 million in loans.
Perhaps the tangible impact of the program is that KasamaKA in essence has brought a radical shift in thinking within the public and private sectors about the vast potential of helping millions of unbanked and underserved Filipinos. Government agencies, banks, cooperatives, MFIs, development organizations and civil society have thrown in their support to the program.

Because of its innovative approach to expanding financial inclusion, Philippine President Rodrigo ROa Duterte supports the program: “I welcome the KasamaKA movement as an effective way to realize our agenda for inclusive growth.”

FUTURE DIRECTION

In the future, not only Lendr will be facilitated via KasamaKA program, but also the upcoming digital financial products that focus on microinsurance, microinvestment, and microsavings. The KasamaKA microinsurance was launched in February 2018 making it the country’s first digital microinsurance initiative.

KasamaKA has a bold goal of including 30 million Filipinos into the formal financial system by 2020. This may be a long shot for an economy that is still cash-heavy, but we know from the very start that unbanked families could be served better when banks tap the most ubiquitous device – the mobile phone – and the most pervasive touchpoint in the country – sari-sari stores. FINTQ also eyes expansion in Southeast Asia, particularly: in Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Laos.

FINTQ also champions the development of digital Halal microfinance framework through a pilot in Marawi City. A pilot in partnership with Tindig Marawi was initiated in March 2018 benefitting an initial 500 Maranao microentrepreneurs displaced by the recent terror siege.
FINTQ is a global leader in customer-centric, demand-driven, and mobile-first digital financial innovations by way of engaging regulators, enabling enterprises, and empowering individuals with awesome consumer experience. With over 30 global and regional accolades for its trailblazing innovations, the organization is committed to accelerate universal digital access to finance at scale via pioneering financial technologies in growth and emerging markets. FINTQ will achieve its vision of building massive bottom-up ecosystem via swift execution of sustainable, high impact, and socially-relevant inclusive digital finance accelerators.