From Sandbox To Success: How PH Neobanks Disrupt Banking

They made use of their old payments model and partnerships to scale operations.

For the Philippines' newest digital banks, it was a leap into the unknown to launch in the country- especially as they have to help create the concept itself.

"There was a huge amount of unknowns when we were starting because the digital bank licence category didn't exist yet. We actually co created with the BSP in the sandbox mode, we co-created the digital licence concept, Tonik Bank CEO Greg Krasnov told attendees of the Asian Banking & Finance Forum held at Shangri-La The Fort, Manila.

Right mindset, right model

Maya Bank President Angelo Madrid recalled how he was tapped into his role in Maya Bank in order to instill the necessary tech mindset which he said was needed in order to build a successful digital bank in the Philippines.

Apart from mindset, adopting the right model was also needed to scale. In Maya's case, they built up from its predecessor, PayMaya, a digital payments app.