The Global Findex database is a global extensive survey done every 4 years by The World Bank. Its goal is to track the development of financial inclusion and digital finance in the world.
The current edition released in June 2022 highlighted significant improvements in developing countries. For instance, compared to 2017, the share of account holders has increased by 8 p.p., to 71%, and the respondents who made or received digital payments increased by 13 p.p., to 57%.
The Philippines is no exception to this general trend, as revealed by Robocash analysts. The country’s financial services have become more accessible, as the number of accounts hasincreased by 1.5x to 51.4%. Even more impressively, the share of credit and debit card owners has grown threefold (to 15.9%), of mobile accounts - five-fold (to 21.7%). Finally, there is apparent simultaneous growth of borrowings (from 10.7% to 17.5%) and savings in financial institutions (11.9%-19.2%). These improvements are most noteworthy, as they set up digital lending, savings deposits and mobile money to be the most promising FinTech sectors in the Philippines.
Providing additional insight, the Robocash analysts comment: “From our perspective, Findex has confirmed most of what we’ve known already. We conducted a similar survey in thePhilippines in 2021. Its results largely fall in line with The World Bank findings: the share of financial institution accounts (Findex - 45.9%, RCG - 38%), borrowings from financialinstitutions (17.5% vs. 22.5%), to name a few. The catalyst behind such explosive growth is the Covid-19 pandemic, as 68% of the respondents claimed to have experienced financial difficulties at the time, and therefore were forced to adapt. Naturally, government policies on
financial inclusion have played their own part as well.”
Robocash Group operates in the Philippines through online credit service Digido, along with a financial mobile app UnaCash.