Neobank Netbank Officially Kicks Off With a Rural Banking License

Netbank, a banking as a service platform in the Philippines, has been launched by an experienced team of international and Filipino bankers.

Much like its counterpart Tonik, Netbank is a fully regulated bank operating under a rural banking license.

The platform is already in operation, booking loans originated by 3 alternative lenders. It has also built the infrastructure needed to provide a full range of banking services, using AWS to run its core banking system.

Netbank provides simple, creative, low cost solutions so that fintech startups can open accounts, offer loans and manage payments.

The bank announced plans to add a range of best in class tools in compliance, fraud management, API services and so on.

Netbank said in a statement that it is already a member of PesoNet and Instapay, adding that the support of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been critical for its launch.

The founding team has deep experience in the banking industry in the Philippines. Jaymar is a former CEO of a bank, Dave is a well known leader in API based banking and Gus has run a bank focused private equity fund in the Philippines, as well as worked for Barclays and Booz Allen.

“Our mission is to provide the full banking services and infrastructure, so fintechs can launch fast, safely and at low cost. The fintech industry in the Philippines should be huge. Filipinos have complex financial lives, with many taking loans and making payments. Most of these transactions happen in the informal sector as banks do not serve Filipinos well; bank penetration levels and electronic transactions are low compared to comparable countries like Thailand or Vietnam. At the same time, Filipinos are tech and social media savvy. This should be a perfect environment for Fintech, yet the industry is developing slowly compared to countries like Indonesia. This is because it is just hard to run a Fintech in the Philippines – it takes a long time to get access to payments, to open accounts, to launch an app. This is the problem that Netbank will solve.”

said Gus Poston, Co-Founder of Netbank.