Consumer lending company, SB Finance Company Inc. has signed a strategic partnership with OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (NYSE: OCFT), a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions and an associate of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd., to provide Filipinos with greater accessibility to credit and better customer experience in an effort to promote financial inclusion among the masses in the Philippines where approximately 65 per cent of the population remain unbanked.
Through the partnership, OneConnect will help SB Finance develop an end-to-end omnichannel digital finance platform using OneConnect’s artificial intelligence (AI) and electronic Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) technologies to digitalize loan application, credit-decisioning, fund disbursement and payment acceptance, as well as to mitigate risk exposure while enabling SB Finance to scale their operations, enhance their service capability and widen their reach to serve more Filipinos. The automated and cloud-based platform will be accessible through various platforms such as mobile, web and Agent App. API connectivity accessible to staff, merchants, dealers and customers will also be enhanced.
Through automation, SB Finance will be able to streamline data collection for various regulatory requirements such as Know Your Customer (KYC), Know-Your-Merchants (KYM) and Know-Your-Agents (KYA). This allows SB Finance to strengthen its business intelligence tools to enhance analytics and conception of new products and services.
“A major strategy of SB Finance is to create products and services to support the average Filipino and the small businessmen in their financial needs while creating a customer-centered journey in the new digital normal. To do this, we needed strong end to end cloud-based solution that can provide mobile, web, agent application and accessibility to our clients and partners,” Says SB Finance President and CEO, Abbie Casanova.
Having served financial institutions across nearly 20 countries and territories, OneConnect has extensive experience in the financial industry and the breadth and depth of solutions for the industry. Tan Bin Ru, CEO (Southeast Asia), OneConnect Financial Technology, says, “We are glad to be chosen as SB Finance’s strategic tech partner to deploy a complete suite of omnichannel digital financing solutions using our cutting-edge AI and eKYC technologies to scale its business and serve its customers better. I believe that with our like-mindedness in using technologies to make finance easier, we will be able to empower one and all, including small business owners, in the Philippines with greater accessibility and wider choices of financing options that best meet everyone’s needs.”
SB Finance and OneConnect aim to build a future-proof platform that provides fast and simple application processing with 24/7 access, thereby enabling round-the-clock business accessibility and better business intelligence for continued enhancement of services.
“To support the BSP’s call for digitalization, we needed an app-based onboarding solution that can support multiple products and have an automated KYC and know-your-partners in order to adapt to the new normal of mobile friendly and easy access to our clients while experiencing fast, simple and secured financial process,” adds Casanova.
SB Finance hopes to use OneConnect’s technology in its products and services within the year to help boost economic progress and lead Filipinos towards a better new normal.
To know more about SB Finance and its products and services, you may visit www.sbfinance.com.ph.