The Philippines, despite being the top social media users in the world, lags behind its Asian neighbors in terms of digital banking adoption, with the lowest banking penetration in Southeast Asia. Based on a report, 71% of the country’s population remains unbanked. Recognizing the potential of digital banking, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) launched its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023 to promote financial inclusion through digitalization, aiming to convert 50% of retail payments to digital and onboard at least 70% of adult Filipinos into the formal financial system.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Thomas Lai, Vice President & General Manager, APJ at Boomi during his recent visit to the Philippines and we talked about how their organization can help local banks and financial services companies to be future-proofed by means of digitalization.
Boomi, a leading cloud-based integration platform, believes that financial institutions can stay agile and future-proof through digitalization, modernizing legacy structures and adapting quickly to industry changes to provide omnichannel service for superior customer satisfaction. The company enables organizations, like financial institutions, to connect and integrate various applications, data sources, and systems across their IT infrastructure. Boomi’s integration capabilities streamline business processes, improve data quality and accuracy, and enhance overall operational efficiency.
“What’s beautiful about Boomi’s iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) in particular is that it’s multi-generational that allows a combination of what are legacy (on-premise) and any combination of cloud that you want. We are cloud and legacy system agnostic — you can get any combination that you want. We provide a unique advantage as FSIs go from yesterday to tomorrow,” said Lai when I asked how his company helps traditional FSIs (Financial Services Institutions) become agile and adapt their services more quickly and efficiently.
Financial institutions typically rely on a variety of software applications for different functions, such as customer relationship management (CRM), core banking systems, payment gateways, risk management systems, and more. Boomi simplifies the integration of these applications, allowing seamless data flow and process automation across the entire IT ecosystem, thereby improving operational efficiency, reducing manual errors, and accelerating time-to-market for new services and features.
In today’s fast-changing information technology (IT) landscape, robust API management capabilities will allow financial institutions to expose their services and data securely to internal and external stakeholders — and this is something that can provide FSIs who may find this feature a challenge. With Boomi, financial institutions can create, manage, and govern APIs, enabling them to open up their systems for integration with third-party applications, fintech partners, and other financial institutions. This promotes innovation, fosters collaboration, and expands the range of services offered to customers.
As financial institutions comply with stringent regulatory requirements while ensuring data privacy and security, Boomi can help businesses in areas such as data mapping, transformation, and validation to help maintain data integrity and consistency. The company can also help provide businesses with secure connectivity options, encryption, and identity management features to protect sensitive information while ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations.