MANILA, PHILIPPINES — UBX, the leading open finance platform in the Philippines, bagged the Best ATM Project Award at the 2022 Asset Triple A Digital Awards for its groundbreaking Mobile ATM Solution, which empowered financial institutions and community-based financial services providers to provide ATM solutions to far-flung areas during the pandemic.
Operated under UBX’s banking-as-a-service platform and community – i2i, the Mobile ATM solution was developed to provide safer access to government cash assistance projects such as 4Ps and SAP in remote areas. It also created an additional source of income for small businesses that were successfully onboarded as cash agents.
i2i prides itself in being the nation’s fastest-growing payments and cash disbursement network. It enables banks, cooperatives, MSMEs, and other non-banking financial institutions to connect with each other to expand their reach and digital capabilities in the name of financial inclusion.
“UBX’s i2i Mobile ATM digital project is a standout initiative in the Philippines and plays an important part in driving financial inclusion in the country. The project was timely given the impact of COVID-19 at the time, enabling distribution and access to funds in the remote areas of the Philippines,” according to the The Asset Board of Editors.
The Asset Triple A Digital Awards recognizes financial institutions and technology firms that have excelled in innovation and developing a unique digital experience for customers across the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The awards are adjudicated by The Asset’s board of editors who collectively have several decades’ worth of experience evaluating industry awards in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
By launching its groundbreaking Mobile ATM solution, UBX, through i2i, was able to augment the income of small businesses directly affected by the quarantine like travel & tour operators, sari-sari stores and carinderias have found an alternative line of business in the midst of the pandemic.
Aside from boosting business for MSMEs in the time of COVID-19, the Mobile ATM digital project guaranteed safer access for the at-risk population, including pensioners. Since they cannot travel to nearby towns or the nearest ATM, either of which could be at least several kilometers away, i2i was able to provide a solution.
Despite the difficulty in delivering its devices in the midst of the harsh lockdown in 2020, i2i managed to deliver. In the last half of 2020 alone, monthly i2i Mobile ATM volumes increased by 3000 percent. At the start of last year, over 1,300 new financial service providers and agents joined the network via a joint venture with Irish financial services technology giant Fexco. Currently, over 3,000 devices are deployed all over the country processing almost P5 billion cash out transactions from year to date mostly in remote locations.
i2i is the Philippines’ fastest-growing open finance and banking-as-a-service platform and community, digitally enabling financial institutions and service providers to bring in-demand financial services to underserved communities nationwide. It has product offerings ranging from money transfers via PESONet and Instapay, mobile ATM services, API integration and more.
i2i connects hundreds of rural and thrift banks to the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) and has over 3,000 agents to date.
“It is humbling to be recognized for our efforts in promoting financial inclusion, since this challenges us to strive for more. There is definitely more to expect from i2i in the near future–projects which are all driven by our commitment to bring finance closer to the everyday Filipino,” UBX President John Januszczak said.
