101 at Metro Manila, BPO and its relationship and potential with Fintech

The Philippines, home to over 100 million people, is a global player in business processes and outsourcing (BPO), but is this a position it can maintain with the rise of fintech?

It is no surprise that Metro Manila, which is the largest urban center and home to the country’s capital, is the epicenter of not only the country’s financial center, but also its globally recognized BPO industry.

The BPO industry in the Philippines contributes at least $ 30 billion to the economy, with over one million Filipinos employed in over 1,000 BPO companies before the pandemic in 2019. As a leader in the global BPO industry, the Philippines alone is estimated to control 15 percent of the global BPO market.

Due to the country’s highly educated workforce and English language skills, much of the BPO industry caters mainly to large parts of the English speaking markets in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The past and globalization have also given the country other BPO opportunities, for example with the Spanish-speaking world.

The three main areas of finance, trade and BPOs are located in the following areas of Metro Manila:

Makati City has been the financial center of the Philippines since the 1960s. Makati Central Business District (CBD) houses several embassies and other important assets such as the Philippine Stock Exchange. Many multinational companies – both international and Filipino-born, call Makati home, including BDO Unibank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Smart telecommunications, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, Ayala Land, Philippine AXA Life Insurance Corporation, China Banking Corporation, Nestléand Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation – to mention some.

Bonifacio Global City – or known as BGC – has its origins as a military base. It has since been transformed into a modern business district in the country, where the transformation began especially in 2003 when the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) entered into a partnership with Ayala Land, Inc. and Evergreen Holdings, Inc.which makes BGC the way it is today.

Companies with offices that include Samsung, Nissan, The Philippine American Life and General Insurance (PhilamLife) Co., Makati Development Corporation, Sun Life of Canada and East West Banking Corporation.

Ortigas Center – Today’s Ortigas Center covers over 100 acres and covers three major cities: Mandaluyong City, Pasig City and Quezon City. Like both Makati and BGC, Ortigas is also a major financial and commercial hub, but also housing and culture.

Iconic Filipino companies like the fast food giant Jollibee and beer conglomerate San Miguel Corporation and mall conglomerate SM Megamall located there, as well as other companies such as Union Bank of the Philippines, Banco de Oro and Asian Development Bank.

Fintech’s growth presents a path for the Philippines to maintain its leadership in the BPO industry. Since it is already initially the world’s BPO capital, the Philippines presents opportunities for growing fintechs to also integrate the nation as part of its own broader expansion and supply chain.

For example, specialized contact centers in the country such as PITON-Global in Manila offers a range of fintech services such as manual identity verification, dispute resolution and repatriation, fraud prevention and investigation.

In addition to the leadership of the global BPO industry, the Philippines is a large market with an emerging economy. In many ways, the growth of the country’s BPO industry has brought many people both into the middle class and also offered opportunities for the workforce who would otherwise most likely have emigrated abroad, which is one of the country’s most remarkable exports – its own people.

With the presidential winner of Bongbong Marcosis much uncertain about how the Philippine economy will develop in the future, as the rest of the world must also tackle the challenges of the pandemic, inflation and other economic barriers to development.

Despite the challenges of Covid-19, the Philippines and its BPO industry continue to help drive the world. Fintechs and BPO can go hand in hand, and the Philippines will most likely be on one’s radar naturally.