GCash Sparks Dialogue at the Pulse 2025 on Role of AI in helping MSMEs Grow their Business

As more and more Filipino businesses turn to digital solutions to streamline operations, digital leaders are prioritizing technologies that enable them to grow their business and reach new markets.

This shift was the central focus at Pulse 2025: B2B Innovation & Leadership Forum, organized by Asticom, a leading shared services and tech solutions company. Held at Shangri-La The Fort, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, the forum brought together business leaders, technologists, and decision-makers from across industries to explore how responsible AI, platform partnerships, and digital transformation are redefining the business landscape in the Philippines.

Among the leading voices at the event was GCash, the country’s top finance superapp. G-Xchange Inc., (the mobile wallet operator of GCash) president and CEO Ren-ren Reyes, along with Jong Layug, general manager for GCash for Business, shared how the platform is evolving beyond consumer finance to drive financial empowerment and provide enterprise-scale solutions.

During one of the fireside chats, Reyes emphasized that the core purpose of GCash extends to both individual users and the broader enterprise landscape. He said, “Whether it's a consumer reloading RFID or a company streamlining collections, we aim to remove pain points through digital tools. Every efficiency gained contributes to a stronger, more empowered economy.”

He also addressed the question of emerging technologies, such as AI, and how GCash filters them through a practical lens:

“We don’t adopt tech for tech’s sake. We ask, does this solve a real problem? If it doesn’t, it’s not worth the distraction. If it does, we scale it in a way that’s intuitive and secure for our users. In the end, at the heart of GCash is our vision—Finance for All. We help Filipinos establish a digital identity and financial footprint, bringing them into the formal system. That small step unlocks services they never thought possible before.”

Noting the crucial role of B2B partnerships and how they’re foundational to GCash’s growth model, Layug shared how GCash has been expanding its enterprise focus through ecosystem collaboration and scalable solutions.

“If something defines who we are, we build it. If speed is critical and others can do it better, we partner. Either way, we always test side by side to ensure we’re delivering the best outcome. We’ve always solved for the Filipino consumer. Now we’re applying the same mindset to businesses—creating tools that remove friction, improve cash flow, and simplify interactions between brands and their customers.”

Also present at the event were industry leaders from McDonald’s Philippines, Globe, Google Philippines, Microsoft Philippines, LinkedIn, Entrego, and other key players in digital innovation and enterprise transformation.

The event was part of Asticom’s 10th anniversary celebration, marking a decade of enabling businesses through shared services, workforce solutions, and technology-driven innovation. Asticom supports organizations in scaling operations and navigating transformation by delivering smart, people-centered business solutions.

As GCash deepens its engagement with the B2B sector through responsible AI, scalable partnerships, and customer-first innovation, it reinforces its mission to support smarter, more inclusive business growth across the Philippines.

For more information, please visit http://www.gcash.com.

Trusting Social Philippines Optimizes Big Data and AI to Spread Financial Inclusion to all Filipinos

Under the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) 2022-2028, launched by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2022, financial inclusion has been clearly established as a national priority in the Philippines. While substantial progress has been achieved, including 25.8 million Basic Deposit Accounts by Q4 2024 and a 24.3% increase in household loans fueled by improved financial systems and positive consumer sentiment, a significant gap remains. The World Bank's Global Findex 2025 shows that only 50.2% of Filipino adults had financial accounts in 2024, a statistic that falls short of regional peers and highlights the pressing need to enhance financial inclusion.

 

Even with the rise of digital banking, e-commerce, and the expansion of financial infrastructure designed to reach underserved communities, significant work lies ahead for comprehensive financial inclusion. Persistent challenges, including limited internet connectivity, gaps in financial literacy, and the crucial element of public trust, continue to impede progress. These barriers highlight the need for innovative efforts to mitigate risks while expanding essential financial services to every corner of the country.

 

Responding to the BSP's call for innovation, financial institutions are increasingly leveraging technology and partnering with companies to expand financial services and access for all. A key player in this endeavor is Trusting Social, a leading Asian fintech AI company. Established in 2013 in the US, the company quickly built a strong foothold across Vietnam, Singapore, India, and Indonesia, providing it with invaluable experience that now directly benefits the Philippines' financial landscape.

Drawing on extensive experience within Asia’s developing economies, Trusting Social entered the Philippines in 2019 to address financial exclusion, focusing on enhancing access to formal credit for the underbanked. Recognizing that more Filipinos have mobile phones than financial accounts, Trusting Social's AI-driven credit scoring system, similar to its foundational work in mobile-first Vietnam, analyzes masked, anonymized, and aggregated telco data. This technology provides a crucial alternative to traditional credit scoring, empowering lenders to reach millions of creditworthy, underserved borrowers often overlooked by conventional banking.

By offering an alternative to traditional scoring, Trusting Social's insights facilitate universal access to financial services from regulated lenders, enabling fast, paperless approvals. Trusting Social's credit insights extend this reach far beyond Metro Manila, connecting even those in distant provinces with feature phones and agri-based incomes. The company's platforms have particularly benefited mass market consumers, including women who benefit from higher approval rates and sustained credit access, ultimately helping to lower interest rates by guiding consumers towards formal credit.

“The traditional banking system was inherently blind to hundreds of millions of deserving individuals lacking financial history—that's the fundamental flaw Trusting Social was built to fix,” shared Nguyen Nguyen, Founder and CEO of Trusting Social. “Through data science and technology, we empower financial institutions to bridge that financial access divide with insights far beyond their legacy capabilities. We've shown, market after market in Asia, that financial well-being is within reach, and we built the exact solutions to deliver it."

 

In the broader picture, a financially inclusive economy serves as a powerful engine for fostering entrepreneurship, investment, job creation and innovation, strengthening the overall financial system. For emerging markets like the Philippines, where financial access remains a critical challenge, this empowerment enables businesses and individuals to significantly improve their livelihoods, build resilience, and navigate unexpected crises.

 

Trusting Social's credit insights are accelerating this impact, processing an average of 120 billion records weekly, enabling over a million borrowers monthly, and facilitating around $500 million in unsecured portfolio. This scale has earned the confidence of over 50 leading financial institutions and businesses in the Philippines, from top commercial banks to start-up lenders, all while upholding strict data privacy and security in compliance with GDPR, Philippine, and other local laws.

 

“Our work in the Philippines has been driven by one core belief: that advanced data science can help bridge the financial inclusion divide in the country. We echo the government’s drive for ensuring no Filipino is invisible to financial opportunities. And through that mission, we've quietly refined, expanded and proven our solutions. Now, recognizing the ongoing challenges and the exciting momentum in the country, it's time to openly partner with those who believe, as we do, that there's still crucial work to be done together,” said Johnny Escaler, CEO of Trusting Social Philippines

Honoring Digital Champions on the 2nd Digital Financial Inclusion Awards

The 2nd Digital Financial Inclusion Awards (DFIA) will again recognize the country’s outstanding microfinance institutions (MFIs) and microentrepreneurs for their achievements in digitalization. The DFIA is a financial inclusion program funded by Citi Foundation, in partnership with the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI) and supported by the Bangko ng Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The virtual launch of the program was led by BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla, Citi Philippines Chief Executive Officer Paul A. Favila, and MCPI Chairperson Gilbert S. Maramba.

“This awards program gives us the venue to highlight our inclusive digital finance agenda and microfinance advocacy. Not to mention, all the inspiring stories that we saw and heard when the awards were given,” said BSP Governor Felipe Medalla.

MFI winners will be chosen based on the types of digital solutions they have adopted, measurable results on the use of digital solutions, and institutional/client benefits of digitalization. Meanwhile, microentrepreneurs will be nominated by the MFIs based on their success stories as microentrepreneurs, the types of digital solutions used, and measurable results on the use of digital solutions. The National Selection Committee is composed of representatives from the government, business sector, media, and academia, and is co-chaired by heads of the BSP and Citi Philippines. They will select four MFIs and twenty microentrepreneurs as Digital Champions for the 2nd DFIA. The program includes learning exchanges and technical assistance for MFIs as part of MCPI’s awareness and readiness campaign.

“Citi and Citi Foundation are committed to investing in financial inclusion initiatives that help create economically vibrant and resilient communities,” said Citi Philippines CEO Paul Favila. “The DFIA supports the financial inclusion objectives of the government and empowers low-income individuals to become financially independent. The program is focused on strengthening financial inclusion through digitalization in Philippine microfinance.”

The program aims to inspire other microentrepreneurs and MFIs to embark on their own digitalization journey that will ultimately lead to business growth and livelihood opportunities for many Filipinos.

“Digitalization played a big role in the survival of MFI clients and the microfinance sector during the early months of the pandemic. Aside from using digital platforms for loan disbursements and collection, we were able to provide non-financial services to clients such as training and telemedicine through digital technologies,” said MCPI Chairperson Gilbert Maramba.

The DFIA program is an evolution of the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards that enables Citi Foundation and MCPI to continue raising awareness about the importance of microentrepreneurship and microfinance in supporting the financial inclusion and economic empowerment of low-income individuals.


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About Citi Foundation:
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant cities. The Citi Foundation’s “More than Philanthropy” approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation.

About the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI)
The Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI) evolved out of a USAID-funded project entitled “Developing Standards for Microfinance Project” (DSMP) that started in mid-1996 and continued until the end of 1999. MFIs that were part of the DSMP decided to form an association or network and the resulting organization, MCPI, was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a non-stock corporation in June 1999.

As of December 2022, MCPI is comprised of 64 members (52 MFIs, 2 regional networks, and 10 support organizations) which account for 90 percent of the microfinance sector in the Philippines. Its key programs include advocacy, capacity building for MFIs, social performance management and client protection in microfinance, knowledge management, and network development. Additional information may be found at https://microfinancecouncil.org | Facebook: www.facebook.com/MicrofinanceCouncil