Unionbank’s fintech subsidiary saw exponential growth across all verticals in 2022

UBX Philippines Corp., the financial technology (fintech) arm of the Aboitiz family, said last Tuesday that it ended 2022 with “exponential growth” across all verticals.

John Januszczak, the company’s president, said over the past three years, UBX’s customer base increased by 184 times, bringing its transaction volumes to a growth rate of 411 times to P41 billion by the end of 2022.

As of the end of December, it has 230,000 business-to-business customers “serving millions of local customers daily.”

“These figures reflect our commitment to our goal of financial inclusion. Our growth in 2022, in the midst of a country recovering from the pandemic, is consistent with our results over the years. We are confident that we will continue to tread on a growth trajectory this year, as we increase our open finance initiatives and introduce new digital financial solutions, Januszczak said.

I2i, the banking-as-a-service platform of UBX, recorded a 132 percent growth in transaction volume by the end of 2022. The platform has over 10,000 touch points across the country, offering basic banking services in rural and remote areas.

Meanwhile, UBX’s online lending platform “SeekCap” has processed over P14 billion of business loans by 2022 from more than 65,000 micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The platform bridges the gap between lenders and MSMEs online. It is the Philippines’ first same-day approval digital lending marketplace.

The end-to-end payment gateway of UnionBank’s wholly-owned subsidiary, BUx, recorded over 100,000 registrations from MSMEs, who use the platform for digital payments.

Januszczak attributed UBX’s growth to its “comprehensive range of embedded financial services and solutions and a network of the largest and most recognized financial institutions and service providers, insurers, lenders and payment channels in the country.”

New partner

AIM Global, a direct sales company of nutritional supplements and herbal products with five million distributors worldwide, has a local network of more than three million distributors. In its 15th year, the company opened its newest subsidiary Orbix Victus International (OVI) as part of its expansion.

Orbix Victus International (OVI) not only offers health and wellness products, but also promotes financial literacy awareness to its distributors and adds more value by opening access to its people to digital financial services through UBX.

“Collaboration with UBX ensures that we get nothing less than the best digital solutions to expand our product range. With its status as the country’s leader in open finance, we are excited to learn the tricks of the trade and expand our knowledge to help more Filipinos across the country.” AIM Global and OVI CEO Eduardo Cabantog said.

The mobile app will be launched during the first quarter of 2023.

Last year, UBX collaborated with various players in various industries such as metaverse, insurance, the women’s sector and even public institutions to promote financial inclusion.

As part of its commitment to promote true financial inclusion, UBX is open to partnering with other organizations to develop tailored digital financial solutions to bridge the economic and social gaps.

“Our partnership with AIM Global and OVI signals that more and more organizations outside of finance are interested and willing to support the goal of promoting economic and social inclusion. We are committed to working with more partners to push this agenda forward so that more Filipinos will be able to participate in and utilize the financial systems, Gorospe said.

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