Dennis Gaviola

Beneficiaries use the electronic benefit transfer cards during the Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp program kick-off activity at the Don Bosco Youth Center in Tondo,Manila on July 18, 2023. The pilot program aims to provide food-purchasing assistance to target beneficiaries via electronic benefit transfer cards containing P3,000 worth of food credits per month. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

Raine Musñgi

ABS-CBN News

MANILA — The race to build the Philippines&#x27; digital economy may not be won by the next e-wallet.Instead, fintech firm eTap believes the biggest opportunity lies in connecting the millions of Filipinos and businesses that still depend on cash to the country&#x27;s rapidly expanding digital financial system.As the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) pushes for faster, cheaper and more accessible digital payments, eTap is taking a different view of financial inclusion. Rather than pursuing a completely cashless Philippines, the company argues the future lies in making cash and digital money work seamlessly together.&quot;The ideal society is where people can easily convert their physical cash to digital cash and vice versa,&quot; eTap Chief Strategy Officer Juan Miguel Hernandez said in an interview on ANC&#x27;s Business Outlook. &quot;Cash is still very much an essential part of our financial ecosystem.&quot;His remarks come as the BSP continues rolling out its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap. According to the BSP&#x27;s latest Report on E-Payments Measurement, 57.4 percent of retail payment transactions were already digital in 2024, up from 52.8 percent in 2023, surpassing the Philippine Development Plan target and highlighting the country&#x27;s accelerating digital transformation.For Hernandez, however, lowering transfer fees alone will not solve financial inclusion if millions of Filipinos still earn, save and spend primarily in cash.<div>Cash-heavy small businesses</div>The next fintech gold mine isn&#x27;t consumers. It&#x27;s cash-heavy SMEs.The Philippine fintech boom has largely revolved around consumers through digital wallets, QR payments and mobile banking. Hernandez believes the industry&#x27;s next wave of growth will come from a market that has received far less attention: micro, small and medium enterprises.<div><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OtJA1GRxZA4?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe> </div>&quot;Our main priority is to serve the demand for these machines. We&#x27;re also developing new systems inside our machines that can cater not just to individuals but to SMEs.&quot;According to the Department of Trade and Industry, the Philippines has more than 1.2 million registered MSMEs, accounting for 99.5 percent of all business establishments and generating more than 60 percent of total employment. Many sari-sari stores, public market vendors, neighborhood restaurants, transport operators and micro-distributors continue to operate almost entirely in cash.For Hernandez, that represents one of the country&#x27;s biggest untapped fintech opportunities.&quot;SMEs still heavily deal in cash. But the problem is there lacks the infrastructure, or let&#x27;s say the bank branches, for them to move their money around or participate in these digital tools.&quot;Instead of asking entrepreneurs to leave their stores just to deposit the day&#x27;s earnings, eTap wants its nationwide kiosk network to become the financial bridge between cash and digital banking.Beyond cash-in and cash-out services, the company is developing business dashboards, financial management tools and eventually insurance, lending and other financial products through partnerships and future offerings.<div>Financial inclusion becomes an infra business</div>Hernandez believes the next chapter of Philippine fintech will not be defined by who launches the next app. It will be defined by who builds the infrastructure that allows more Filipinos to participate in the formal financial system.Banks traditionally expanded by opening branches. eTap is pursuing a different model by placing self-service financial technology where people already shop, pay bills and do business.What began as a prototype built in a garage has grown into what it says is one of the country&#x27;s largest self-service financial technology networks.According to Hernandez, eTap has deployed more than 7,000 machines, including 4,000 under the ETAP brand, across 70 cities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao while serving approximately 12 million users.&quot;We plug and play these machines into convenience stores, supermarkets, pawn shops, even eateries.&quot;Instead of investing in expensive brick-and-mortar expansion, the company is scaling through software, automation and retail partnerships that bring financial services closer to underserved communities.Hernandez believes that strategy could prove especially valuable outside major cities, where many entrepreneurs still travel long distances simply to access formal banking services.He also argues that cash remains an important layer of resilience in a country regularly affected by typhoons, earthquakes and internet or power outages.Rather than eliminating cash, Hernandez said the country&#x27;s financial ecosystem should allow consumers and businesses to remain &quot;phygital&quot;: move effortlessly between physical and digital money whenever circumstances require.<div>Not trying to replace GCash or Maya</div>Despite expanding beyond payment kiosks into broader financial services, Hernandez said eTap is not trying to become another digital wallet.Asked whether the company hopes to become &quot;the next GCash&quot; or &quot;the next Maya,&quot; Hernandez said its long-term ambition is fundamentally different.&quot;We want to be one of the key players that enable GCash and Maya, but competing head-to-head with their products and services is not our priority.&quot;Instead of competing with the country&#x27;s largest fintech platforms, eTap wants to become part of the infrastructure powering them, much like how cloud providers quietly power thousands of digital businesses behind the scenes.&quot;They have their strengths. We have our own strengths. We see success coming from collaboration.&quot;That collaborative approach also complements one of the BSP&#x27;s broader objectives: expanding financial connectivity and bringing more underserved Filipinos into the formal financial system through interoperable digital infrastructure.For Hernandez, the future of Philippine fintech is not about choosing between cash or digital payments. It is about building a financial system where every Filipino, from urban professionals to provincial entrepreneurs, can move between both worlds easily, securely and affordably.

Fintech firm eTap believes the biggest opportunity lies in connecting the millions of Filipinos and businesses that still depend on cash to the country's rapidly expanding digital financial system.

Fintech firm eTap believes the biggest opportunity lies in connecting the millions of Filipinos and businesses that still depend on cash to the country's rapidly expanding digital financial system.

Not the next GCash: eTap challenges cashless Philippines

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Not the next GCash: eTap challenges cashless Philippines

Raine Musñgi,

ABS-CBN News

Published July 31, 2026 08:00 AM PHT

Read More:

eTap

fintech

GCash

Maya

cashless

payments

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