For those who rely on the monthly “pera padala” from their working family members, every single peso counts. That is why the recipients and even senders will easily sacrifice convenience for the sake of saving a few more pesos, even if that means going to a remittance center that is farther away.
Modern technology may have brought our archipelagic islands closer through communication, but that sad truth is that majority of Filipinos remain underserved when it comes to financial services.
Did you know that it actually takes an average of 21 minutes for Filipinos living in remote barangays to reach the nearest bank or financial access point?
TrueMoney, the latest entrant to the money remittance industry, is making a big impact since it started operation last year as it seeks to address the needs of millions of Filipinos who have limited access to banks by providing a fast, cheaper, and more convenient option.
“Our mission is to provide affordable and innovative financial services to those who are underbanked and underserved today,” says TrueMoney Philippines CEO Xavier Marzan. “That means going beyond a purely digital UI (user interface) and being present in the physical world where these segments are transacting today.”
In a short span of time, TrueMoney has already achieved a level of size and scale that some of the older players in the Financial Tech industry are still aspiring for. The company has grown from a small group into an organization with hundreds of employees across the country and with a distribution network comprised of 5,000 TrueMoney Centers, which they manage with a high standard.
TrueMoney Centers are currently capable of performing remittance transactions, bills payment, gaming credits, and even payments for e-commerce purchases.
TrueMoney also challenges the norm by offering the lowest transaction fee for money remittance. While the average rates for domestic remittances today range from 3 percent to more than 10 percent for some providers, TrueMoney rates go as low as only 2 percent of the transaction amount—without any additional charges to the recipient.
“We are also constantly innovating our services and plan to offer more services in the future,” says Marzan.
The story of true
“FinTech” (short for Financial Technology) is an extremely hot industry sector in business today. Talk to any tech investor or Venture Capitalist out there and they will tell you how investment into Fintech companies and start-ups has soared in the last two years.
In 2016 alone, according to data accumulated by investment bank Financial Technology Partners, FinTech companies globally raised a total of $36 billion in funding.
FinTech is especially attractive in emerging markets like the Philippines because of the massive opportunity to serve those without access to efficient payments and banking services today. And according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), this number of “underbanked” or “unbanked” Filipinos is still around 70 percent of working adults today.
TrueMoney started out in Thailand as part of the True Corp and CP Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Asia. Regionally, it is owned by the Ascend Group from Thailand and Alipay from China.
TrueMoney has been the payments and financial services business for more than 12 years and is the largest and fastest-growing financial service platform in SE Asia. From one market 18 months ago, TrueMoney is already present in six emerging markets across the region including Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Indonesia and most recently, the Philippines.
TrueMoney has the largest agent network with about 25,000 partner outlets in SEA and 5,000 in the Philippines alone supporting the ecosystem.
“We need to bring underserved customers who don’t even use banking services today along a customer journey. This requires us to be pervasive across the country and be able to serve customers even in farther-flung areas,” Marzan adds.
Currently, TrueMoney Centers in the Philippines already provide convenient payments and financial services to provinces and far flung areas including Albay, Bataan, Benguet, Bohol, Bukidnon, Cagayan de Oro, Camarines Sur, Cavite, Cebu, Davao, Ilocos, Isabela, Laguna, La Union, Metro Manila, Misamis Oriental, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Quezon, Rizal, Tarlac, and Zambales and more.
“Where we are today is just the starting point,” Marzan says. “We are constantly growing our network of partner centers to cover more greenfield areas.”
To know more about TrueMoney and how to become a TrueMoney partner agent, visit www.truemoney.com.ph or call (02) 7189999. You may even text them at 09778063775 (Globe) or 0998565999 (Smart).
