FINTECH | UnionBank’s one-stop banking app to ‘Tech-Up’ MSMEs
MSMEs account for 99.5% of all business establishments in the Philippines and 62.4% of total employment.
Source: UnionBank
UnionBank continues to empower SMEs and microbusinesses with its recent launch of the country’s first mobile banking app that caters directly to the financing demands of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises.
MSMEs account for 99.5% of all business establishments in the Philippines and 62.4% of total employment. The sector also has its own unique needs especially in financial support for typically one-man operations.
UnionBank’s latest innovation allows MSMEs to embrace digital transformation that has been hastened across all industries with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The overall mission is to accelerate the development and growth of small enterprises via agile use of digital platforms.
Through the MSME banking app, any business owner can open a checking account online fast and
fuss-free. The new account will be accessible and ready to use on the same day of online registration.
The entrepreneur can also apply for a loan with ease and convenience, without having to visit a branch, fill up forms and all the paper work traditional offline banking entails. With just a few clicks, even a new customer will be able to manage her business to include tracking inventory and launching an online store.
MSMEs, especially micro-enterprises, may have been the most vulnerable to the pandemic with no access to financial assistance but UnionBank has been the first to acknowledge that these tiny home-based enterprises are the earliest birds to bounce back and tap the opportunities in electronic commerce.
The recognition of business resiliency prompted the decision for UnionBank to back the development and roll-out of an intuitive, user-friendly and secure banking app tailor-fit to the specific demands of small enterprises. Already, it is being called a one-stop center for MSMEs.
The latest digital app is part of the bank’s “Tech Up, Pilipinas,” a comprehensive strategy in utilizing technology to promote sustainable prosperity, particularly of the unbanked and the underserved among the country’s 108 million population. It will also further pave the way towards financial inclusion of a business sector that has long bewailed the dearth of financial assistance through good and bad times.
UnionBank already has close to 180,000 MSME clients and with the new app, it projects to bring 1 Million small enterprises on board in the near term.
The app is available on Google Play and App Store.
