OneConnect Financial Technology has partnered with UBX Philippines, to build the country’s first blockchain-enabled platform to meet the banking needs of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
One Connect is an affiliate of China’s insurance giant Ping An Group and UBX is the wholly-owned fintech subsidiary of Union Bank of the Philippines.
“We believe there is huge economic potential in the MSME sector and we have confidence in how our technology can help enterprising businesses leapfrog into better ways of doing business,” said Tan Bin Ru, CEO for Southeast Asia at OneConnect Financial Technology.
The blockchain-enabled digital platform will be operational by end-2019, and will be made available to a progressively larger community of MSMEs by 2020.
The financing platform is an end-to-end platform that leverages OneConnect’s facial recognition technology, micro-expression interviewing technology, and big data-enabled artificial intelligence.
The platform covers a wide range of business finance needs, such as multi-channel loan applications, credit assessment, loan disbursement, and anti-fraud checking. It significantly reduces approval time while providing more accurate risk assessment.
With digital loan application channels enabled, the platform allows lenders to target a wider MSME population in the Philippines. These MSMEs can also use the platform’s advanced capabilities such as AI, big data, remote interview with micro-expression technology and anti-fraud engine.
For supply chain finance, blockchain technology is leveraged to allow greater penetration across and into the supply chain. Through OneConnect’s Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, important data including order and logistics information is encrypted while enabling critical functions such as paperless contracts, contract judgement, compliance verification and financing risk assessment.
“In the Philippines, 77% of our population is unbanked and we have a diverse geography that spans across over 7,000 islands,” said John Januszczak, president & CEO of UBX.
“Digital financial solutions — such as the ones we are co-creating with OneConnect — will allow us to include more MSMEs in the financial system,” he said.
