Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, has announced that its solutions will enable Binangonan Rural Bank (BRB) – the first rural bank in the Philippines to launch e-money issuance operations – to reach more of the country’s unbanked through cloud infrastructure solutions and digital technologies.

Together with local partner Unicloud Technology, Alibaba Cloud will offer its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) system, underpinned by robust computing and AI capabilities, to host BRB’s E-Money digital app dubbed “E-pon”. The move to digitalization will enable BRB to effectively scale its online payment operations and deliver increased flexibility based on their users’ demands, in a secure and cost-effective way.

BRB will also leverage a series of innovative cloud-based FinTech products from Alibaba Cloud and Ant Group, including the eKYC (Electronic Know Your Customer) solution and Mobile-Platform-as-a Service (mPaas). This will digitalize its identity verification process and other mobile payment operations.

“E-money makes it possible for more people to engage in financial transactions online, especially in the new normal. By leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s IT infrastructure and innovative Fintech products, we will be able to provide more unbanked and underserved Filipinos with convenient access to financial services,” said Alfonso Huang, President of Epon from BRB.

“We are honored to support BRB’s digitalization journey with our proven expertise in the fintech industry. We are keen on providing cloud computing solutions to support more Philippine Fintech companies to bolster financial inclusivity in the country while bringing seamless and convenient digital experiences to local consumers,” said Allen Guo, Country Manager for the Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

With a local data center launched in the Philippines last year, Alibaba Cloud is able to provide high availability and strengthen disaster recovery capabilities for local customers, like BRB. They will be able to enjoy more reliable cloud services and allow end users to have lower latency, added Guo.

As the leading public cloud service provider in Asia Pacific, Alibaba Cloud is one of the founding members of the FinTech Alliance of the Philippines, offering its expertise in cloud technology to provide appropriate solutions, including elastic compute, database, security, storage and network services and machine learning and data analytics capabilities, to address issues and challenges in the sector.