Mastercard today announced that Netbank, the Philippines’ first Banking-as-a-Service platform (BaaS), will join its Fintech Express program, giving the regulated Filipino bank access to a vast range of Mastercard’s digital-first products and enabling it to issue debit and credit cards under its partners’ brands.
Netbank is geared towards accelerating the digitalization of its customers—including financial institutions, payment companies, neo-banks, domestic fintechs and even non-bank businesses—offering a full range of white-labelled banking services to institutions that are migrating to digital. Through its services, Netbank enables Filipino fintechs to scale, supports overseas fintechs to rapidly bring their products to the Philippines, and aids traditional lenders by providing digital financial services to their customers.
“We see massive opportunity for expansion of digital payments in the Philippines,” said Gus Poston, co-Founder of Netbank. “This partnership with Mastercard will enable us to provide a professional, safe and innovative range of payment solutions, which is what the market needs. We look forward to allowing a wide range of partners to issue cards in this exciting market.”
“Innovations will allow our partners to offer safe and reliable solutions to all their clients,” added Jaymar Mendoza, co-Founder of Netbank and Head of Operations. “Cards are just the start. In a country like the Philippines, a fintech needs to think about offering accounts, payments between accounts and loans to provide a complete solution. The partnership between Netbank and Mastercard will allow us to do this.”
Mastercard’s Fintech Express was designed to simplify the way that Mastercard works with fintechs around the world. Through the initiative, fintechs are offered access to a suite of digital products to differentiate their offerings, as well as flexible commercial agreements for fintechs’ early growth stages to reduce barriers to entry. Mastercard also provides global licensing support with in-market teams to facilitate the acceleration of fintechs’ growth and expansion. Mastercard Fintech Express is a key pillar under Mastercard Accelerate – a fintech platform designed to give start-ups and emerging players the support and assistance they need to transform, scale and connect. The other pillars of Mastercard Accelerate are Start Path, Engage and Developers.
“Mastercard welcomes Netbank as its newest partner in Fintech Express—particularly given that they are the Philippines’ first Banking-as-a-Service platform. Netbank’s offering promises to give more Filipino businesses a head start in digitalization, which is particularly important now that the economy has become exponentially more reliant on digital commerce as a result of the pandemic. Mastercard is committed to enabling payments of all forms to ensure the creation of a digital ecosystem that works for everyone,” said Simon Calasanz, Country Manager, Philippines, Mastercard.
Through the partnership, Mastercard and Netbank will accelerate Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) goal of bringing at least 70 percent of Filipino adults into the financial system by 2023. Furthermore, the agreement aligns with BSP’s objective to enable more innovative and responsive digital financial services in the country, especially as the global pandemic has made it an imperative to shift towards digital payments.
