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银联银行总裁Edwin Bautista和高级执行副总裁/消费银行主管Manoj Varma在2022年新加坡金融科技节上-Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

如果说当地银行业有一家金融科技“旗手”，那么菲律宾联合银行(Union Bank of Philippines)就是它的代名词。这家Aboitiz公司是一家集科技公司和银行于一身的公司，它对科技世界进行了深入研究，包括区块链、加密货币、人工智能、元宇宙和所有这些高科技产品，这是国内同行所没有的。

在展示自己的产品时，它并不害羞，尤其是在最近的新加坡金融科技节(SFF)期间。

“在金融技术方面，菲律宾并不落后太多。事实上，我们在银行技术领域的开发即使不能领先于东南亚的技术，也是相当的，”银联银行总裁埃德温·包蒂斯塔在该行2022年SFF展位上的一次聊天中告诉《问询者》。

银联银行的展位位于新加坡世博会大厅的显眼的橙色阴影中，这里挤满了参展商、穿着马克?扎克伯格风格的休闲时尚的初创企业创始人，以及寻找下一个独角兽公司的投资者，很难让人错过;这是唯一一个有两层的。第一层展示了关键的里程碑和技术，旁边是一面专利墙(是拉古纳创新园区的复制品)，这是其创新文化的可见代表。二楼是一个迷你休息室，提供自由流动的咖啡和小吃，在这里进行媒体聊天和小型商业会议。

“我们在这里举着旗帜，与新加坡银行竞争，有足够的信心展示我们的创意，”包蒂斯塔说。

但为什么要在金融科技领域建立如此高的知名度呢?因为银联银行相信，嵌入日常交易中的隐形银行业务是未来的趋势，所以它希望置身于快速变化的技术圈中。当它与未来的独角兽公司接触时，它抓住了帮助国家发展科技的新企业。

包蒂斯塔表示:“截至今天，88%的金融科技公司在菲律宾银联银行注册。”他们中的许多人都是在上海国际金融博览会上认识的，银联银行在上海国际金融博览会上第三次崭露头角。

此外，SFF就像东南亚最优秀人才的丰盛自助餐，让银联银行得以扩展其金融科技人才，尤其是金融科技子公司UBX和新成立的UnionDigital。

“我们对联数的想法是创建最好的数字银行;(因此)我们需要获得最好的可用人才，不仅是菲律宾国内的人才，而且是全世界的人才。”

里程碑

区块链驱动的UnionBank交易银行业务主管Ramon Duarte(右二)和SCF队长Ronald Arceo(右一)向媒体介绍供应链融资

这个SFF足迹来得非常及时，特别是UnionDigital自7月以来已经上线。在这一新类别的六家BSP许可公司中，它是唯一一家由现任银行拥有的BSP——这对增加盈利资产是一个很大的利好。

在短短四个月的运营后，UnionDigital已经获得173万客户，并达到40亿比索的贷款，通过从其母银行的老数字平台EON迁移账户，快速实现了这一目标。

包蒂斯塔认为，到2022年年底，联合数字将有48亿比索的贷款，是同行中最大的。UnionDigital还签约了其第一个企业客户，加密货币交易平台菲律宾数字资产交易所(PDAX)。

“We are confident that UnionDigital Bank offers the banking solutions that digital natives, such as PDAX, need to continuously grow,” says Nichel Gaba, PDAX founder and CEO.

For its part, UBX is hitting volume milestones. It has acquired more than 200,000 customers since its launch and brought to its open finance network 150 regulated financial institutions. Revenues grew more than five times in 2021.

“They just need to monetize and commercialize and monetize the platform,” Bautista says.

Supply chain financing

Likewise showcased are the use cases for its supply chain financing (SCF) offered to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) serving large corporations.

Factoring, which raises working capital by selling future receivables, has been around for a long time. But UnionBank’s SCF differs in that it’s powered by a democratized ledger system—a.k.a. blockchain—to ascertain veracity of receivables. Big corporations act as anchors for their SME suppliers to borrow against such receivables.

“You could talk about a large FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) company and their suppliers, or an energy company and their network of dealers. We build ways of lending to smaller partners around the principal anchor, an ecosystem type of approach,” explains Ramon Duarte, head of UnionBank transaction banking.

Gaining traction since 2020, one of SCF’s first anchors was a major telecom player, whose equipment suppliers needed cash ahead of scheduled payments. The Aboitiz Group’s Pilmico Foods Corp. is another.

“So the orders, the volumes that are flowing from Pilmico to their dealers are all available in this platform, and the bank can see that, so we’re able to get assurance that these shipments were, in fact, delivered and going to be paid, and we will receive the payment,” he says.

By bringing visibility into the transactions, UnionBank better gauges the provenance of receivables and thus extends credit to SMEs at lower rates than creditors elsewhere. It’s like efficiently tracking the provenance of an artwork to better gauge fair value.

All told, Bautista feels that this 2022 is his “lucky year” because all management’s commitments made to UnionBank’s board have been met.

On the bottom line, UnionBank’s net profit was flat at about P10 billion in the first nine months, but it’s seen to pick up pace.

“Income-wise, this year, I think we will still manage double-digit growth despite the fact that we’re carrying a large cost structure because of the integration (referring to the P72-billion acquisition of Citi’s local consumer and retail businesses). Since they are coming in ahead of schedule, it’s helping us a lot, so we can still hit the double-digit growth in terms of income,” Bautista says. INQ

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