Tala teams up with UnionDigital to provide mobile wallet to MSMEs, borrowers in PHL

By Roderick L. Abad @rodrik_28

Contributor

GLOBAL technology com- pany Tala has entered into a partnership deal with homegrown UnionDigital Bank to launch an electronic wallet to provide both the unbanked and underserved Filipinos, whether individuals or businesses, with a seamless destination to manage their daily financial needs and stabilize their economic status in just a click of a button.

According to Tala Philippines

Chief Product Officer Jori Pearsall, nearly 45 percent of the adult population in the Philippines still does not have bank accounts. Not to be ignored, of course, are the many people with limited access to banking services.

“This will continue to stress many Filipinos’ state of being. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve chosen the Philippines as the first country to launch the Tala Wallet,” he told reporters during their memorandum of agreement signing and kick off event held in Makati City on Monday.

As the launchpad for Tala’s establishment, growth and expansion, the multinational did not think twice to debut another product here due to responsive markets who need financial access such as the micro, small and medium enterprises or MSMEs, which comprise 99.58 percent of all businesses nationwide; a young workforce at 20 million as of 2020; and the high penetration of smart mobile devices at 84.67 percent as of last year.

“It’s geography, financial ecosys- tems, and the amazing people have made it ideal in helping build the foundation of a more inclusive financial world,” said Tala Philippines marketing Manager Missy Santos.

Powered by EON owned by UnionDigital Bank, the new Tala Wallet allows users to now apply loans and directly receive the money they borrow through Tala’s awardwinning mobile application. Also, they can pay bills sans transaction charges or transfer money virtually without the need to travel or line up in long queues onsite.

“With this partnership, Tala moves from being strictly on lending out to providing a full range of digital financial services for our customers,” Nick Norcross, senior vice president for global product of Tala, noted as he differentiated the Tala Wallet from other competitors being built on their robust and developed micro-credit services.

Shared mission

THE partnership between Tala and UnionDigital Bank is grounded on the commitment of empowering individuals with access to seamless, secure, and reliable and meaningful financial services.

Per UnionDigital Bank President and CEO Henry Aguda, they share with Tala the promise of financial inclusion and empowerment for those who haven’t been tapped by the formal lending sector. Starting out as a full digital bank with a key focus on providing essential banking products and services, he said that they aspire to be the primary digital bank for the underserved Filipinos like the minimum wage earners, the MSMEs, and the overseas Filipino workers. Tala, for its part, constantly talks to its customers to understand their challenges and to make products that help them meet their financial needs.

From an execution standpoint, on the other hand, Tala is focused on customers’ experience. Just like its app, the application process for the wallet is also the same with the need of only one valid ID and an Android phone.

This and more benefits have, in turn, made Tala continuously receive positive feedbacks from the local market. In fact, Tala Philippines Site Operations Director Paulo

Dalupan revealed that reports show a Net Promoter Score of 84, which is excellent, as most of their customers enjoy efficient loan approval process and ease of use of the app.

He added that they found out in another study that almost all their borrowers or 98 percent agree that they understand the terms and conditions of their loans, and 99 percent trust Tala with their personal information.

“Now that we are offering the expanded Tala wallet, we are bringing to our customers the next level of satisfaction of doing all the transactions they want to in one single-app and our continued commitment of our services, just better,” he said.

With their partnership with Tala, Aguda is positive that it will enable the customers of their partner to achieve their financial goals and build a better future for themselves and their families.

He said: “This partnership with Tala will be one of our gateways to deliver unparalleled convenience and accessibility in financial services to their two million customers.”

Future endeavors

TALA and UnionDigital Bank’s collaboration still has a long way to go as this will enable more Filipinos to build a more financially secured future. The launch of the Tala Wallet will open the door for them to offer more to their customers in the coming years.

“We are looking forward to giving you lower interest rates and more credit loan products in the future. And just like the support we’ve been receiving the past years, we hope for the same warmth of support from you and the public in this future endeavor,” Dalupan shared.

“There are multiple ways we can collaborate. At the moment, we’re targeting different segments of the market for credit,” UnionDigital Bank Chief Commercial & Revenue Officer Mike Singh added.

For example, Tala provides a maximum loan of P100,000. With this in mind, he thought of “what if they do with customers that have moved out to the social ladder through Tala’s effort to educate the customer in financial credit or to start a business becomes successful? What if it’s some point the customer need half-a-million, [or] a million [pesos]. That’s where our bank comes in. So there are customers that we declined that potentially could pass to Tala to underwrite.

So really it’s a beautiful marriage.” Excited for what lies ahead because of the potential and opportunities their team up could bring to their customers, Aguda also disclosed their inclination to teach MSMEs on how to leverage in order to know the ways to increase their wealth.

“Most businesses use leverage to increase their value,” he explained. “The only way they can learn that is by providing affordable financial services.”

The President and CEO of UnionDigital Bank cited, for instance, that if a small business player is given a loan of P10,000 and able to pay it that entitles him to a bigger amount of credit every time it’s settled on time, “that’s the only way it grows.”

“Our country will be better off with our MSMEs getting a lot more help from the financial sector to grow their businesses,” he stressed, while citing their plan to embark on the Agri-Agra Loan. “So we will make full use of the Agri-Agra Law in order for us to reserve money that we can lend to agriculturalbased MSMEs.

Such initiatives, Norcross bared, are among the reasons they think highly of the UnionDigital as a great partner. He said: “They’re such good all throughout in their mission and segments that are very similar to ours. We see these as too complementary strategies that we can work together for the success of our customers.”