Aboitiz Group‘s financial technology (FinTech) venture studio UBX made its seriousness and sincerity in pushing for an open finance ecosystem by launching the Philippine Open Finance Foundation on the opening day of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2022.
Aimed at championing the development of an inclusive Open Finance Framework in the Philippines, the newly formed institution will make the adoption of open finance a technology that empowers Filipino consumers with the right set of financial tools and solutions for their needs.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child, and since Open Finance in the Philippines is still in infancy, UBX has decided to launch a shared village we call the Philippine Open Finance Foundation,” according to Jaime Garchitorena, UBX Managing Director for Open Finance.
The Philippine Open Finance Foundation will bring together relevant stakeholders, including other financial institutions, government agencies, non-government organizations, civic groups, and the academe to come up with meaningful initiatives that will support the development of Open Finance in the Philippines.
The foundation will advocate the inclusion of finance in the Philippine education system, dialogues with the relevant government institutions, especially the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and strong collaboration with industry players to realize the benefits of Open Finance.
Early this year, the BSP has launched the Open Finance Framework aimed at promoting collaborative partnerships and digital transformation as key enablers towards economic resilience and financial inclusion. Open Finance has the power to accelerate the country’s financial inclusion goal, as it democratizes access to a spectrum of financial products and services, particularly for the unbanked and underbanked as well as growing businesses. As the extension of data sharing principles, Open Finance can give greater control to customers over their own data and enable them to allow third-party providers access to their information across multiple financial products and services.
Driving access and interoperability among financial ecosystem participants, Open Finance allows financial institutions to reach the unbanked and underbanked while empowering them to tailor solutions that meet the needs of consumers and businesses.
Participants in this ecosystem can acquire customers at scale, develop solutions specific to the unbanked, underbanked, and growing businesses, and provide consumers with greater choice and control over their data.
“The Philippine Open Finance Foundation aims to ensure that the adoption of Open Finance as a technology is premised on a well-educated and trusting public and a well-educated and trustworthy set of participants. One of its core advocacies will be consumer protection through a strong dispute resolution mechanism. We plan to work with a diverse set of partners and institutions, advocating for the adoption of open finance, consumer education, and consumer protection. We invite and encourage you to join our village to bring Open Finance to every Filipino,” Garchitorena said.
Aside from consumer-focused initiatives, the Philippine Open Finance Foundation also aims to help the BSP craft, develop, and evolve the Open Finance Framework of the country, allowing “consent-driven data portability, interoperability, and collaborative partnerships among financial institutions and third-party providers (TPPs).”