Malaysia’s CIMB reaches out to unbanked Filipinos

MANILA, Philippines — THE Philippine unit of Kuala Lumpur-based CIMB Group has partnered with Singaporean financial technology firm CredoLab to reach unbanked Filipinos via personal loans.

Vijay Manoharan, chief executive officer of CIMB Bank Philippines, said their latest digital initiative would provide Filipinos with formal credit lending facilities.

“With CredoLab, we are now focusing on making our application and underwriting process more efficient so that we can extend credit to a broader market without compromising on our cost of risk. In this way, we can further drive financial inclusion by enabling more Filipinos access to formal credit lending facilities efficiently,” Manoharan said.

CIMB Bank Philippines uses CredoApp to instantly score applicants, including “thin-file” customers who lack sufficient or any traditional credit bureau data.

With CredoLab’s artificial intelligence-based credit scoring capabilities, Filipinos can apply for a credit loan of up to P1 million even in the absence of fulfilling traditional banking requirements.

Within 10 minutes, Filipinos can enjoy in-principle approvals on their personal loans through the CIMB app and without having to step foot into or queue at a CIMB bank branch.

“As an all-digital bank, we are continuously looking for ways to improve the banking experience for our customers,” Manoharan added.

CredoApp’s bank-grade algorithm analyzes nearly 500,000 features from opt-in and permissioned smartphone metadata to find the most predictive behavioral patterns before converting them into credit scores, in a matter of seconds. This enables banks like CIMB to understand the repayment behavior and creditworthiness of their applicants with greater accuracy.

Within two weeks of the launch, the partnership has already scored over 1,000 customers all in less than 10 minutes with minimal traditional data requirements.

CIMB Bank Philippines expects this number to grow at an exponential rate as the bank steps up its marketing efforts to raise customer awareness and interest in CIMB’s personal loan product.

CredoLab CEO and co-founder Peter Barcak said CIMB Bank has been steadfast in adopting the latest technologies to present the best banking solutions to customers.

“We are delighted that through our plug and play solution that complements and boosts their existing processes, we are powering CIMB Bank Philippines’ latest efforts in driving financial inclusion by providing credit to those who lack a traditional credit background,” Barcak added.

The partnership with CredoLab supports CIMB Bank Philippines’ plans to onboard more digital-savvy Filipinos by the end of 2019 by using the country’s growing smartphone penetration usage to their benefit.

Established in Singapore in 2016, CredoLab has powered over $1 billion in loans across 15 countries. The company is backed by Fintonia Group, FORUM, Walden International and GoBear.