Daven Tamayo

Boardroom Tea: Digital banking’s quiet consolidation

Article (news)

Salve Ibaňez

ABS-CBN News

<p>MANILA — The deadline for new digital banking licenses passed December 1 with barely a whisper from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Not a single peep about how many applications came through the door right before or after the deadline, which players made the cut, or whether anyone bothered to apply at all throughout the year before the moratorium slammed shut again. </p><p>My banking sources tell me they’re not surprised by the silence. The real story isn’t about who’s getting in—it’s about who might not survive</p><p>Here’s the boardroom tea: before the BSP opens the floodgates again, the industry needs to figure out who can actually make money at this game. And right now, that’s a very short list. (Well, to be honest, the full list is short to begin with!) </p><div><br/></div><div><strong>The Profitability Problem</strong> </div><p>Six digital-only banks currently operate in the Philippines—OFBank, GoTyme, UNO, Tonik, UnionDigital, and Maya Bank. Their fundamental challenge remains brutally simple: grow lending to levels that sustainably generate profit. </p><p>Maya and GoTyme are consistently growing their customer base and lending businesses, with Maya serving 8.2 million bank customers and managing P50 billion in deposits, while GoTyme has acquired over 8 million users and holds more than P40 billion in deposits. Both are racing toward profitability with aggressive product expansion and strategic partnerships. </p><p>Then there’s the turnaround story everyone’s watching: UnionDigital Bank. When the bank’s non-performing loan ratio hit 40 percent, alarm bells went ringing, but under new operations since late last year, NPLs have dropped to below 7 percent—a remarkable recovery engineered by CEO Bong Mojica, the former soap-truck-driving Grameen banking enthusiast who’s applying hard-won street smarts to digital lending. </p><p>What boardroom insiders are telling me is that the other three digital banks face starker management choices: play catch-up, get bought out, or surrender their licenses. </p><p>To be clear, everybody is in agreement: None of these will happen at depositors’ expense. The BSP’s watchful eye ensures these growing pains won’t become systemic risks. In fact, consolidation could be good for banking customers. </p><div><br/></div><div><strong>The CIMB Outlier</strong> </div><p>Here’s where the digital banking landscape gets interesting: CIMB Bank Philippines—technically a digital-only foreign commercial bank operating under a universal banking license—hit 10 million customers as of end-November 2025, dwarfing every licensed digital bank. </p><p>CIMB’s secret? Embedding itself in platforms Filipinos already use daily—GCash, Shopee, and Lazada. The bank doesn’t compete for attention; it simply shows up where the transactions already happen. </p><p>Think of CIMB as digital banking’s cousin rather than sibling to the six licensed players. Different regulatory framework, different growth strategy, same digital-first approach. </p><div><br/></div><div><strong>The Diskartech Playbook</strong> </div><p>Then there’s Diskartech, which might represent the smartest digital banking strategy nobody’s talking about enough.</p><p>During an impromptu huddle at RCBC Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer Lito Villanueva’s BGC office, recently retired former RCBC President Eugene Acevedo—now channeling his energy into not one but two doctoral dissertations—shared how Diskartech achieved rapid scale: RCBC Chairman Helen Yuchengco-Dee gave Villanueva a separate board with faster decision-making authority. </p><p>The result? Quick decisions, strategic investments, and a digital banking platform that launched without the regulatory headaches facing standalone digital banks. Diskartech operates as an integral part of RCBC’s universal banking license—no waiting periods, no separate capitalization requirements, just pure execution speed. </p><p>This raises the billion-peso question: Is the most optimal path to digital banking transformation through existing universal banks creating digital arms, rather than standalone digital banks building everything from scratch? Seabank, for example, is a rural bank operating like a digital bank, giving up to 9 percent annual deposit rates earlier this year. </p><div><br/></div><div><strong>The Road Ahead </strong></div><p>The six licensed digital banks currently operating represent the BSP’s bold experiment in financial inclusion. Some will thrive, others will merge or exit. The moratorium—now extended indefinitely—gives the regulator time to watch this play out without adding more variables to an already complex equation. </p><p>My sources whisper that consolidation conversations are already happening behind closed boardroom doors. Who pairs with whom? Which foreign investors might write checks to bail out struggling players? Which digital banks might simply hand back their licenses rather than keep burning capital? </p><p>And that’s a story worth waiting for. </p><p>----- </p><div><em>Boardroom Tea comes out every Wednesday.</em></div>

<p>My sources whisper that consolidation conversations are already happening behind closed boardroom doors. Who pairs with whom?</p>

My sources whisper that consolidation conversations are already happening behind closed boardroom doors. Who pairs with whom?