PayMaya expands footprint

MANILA, Philippines — Digital financial services company PayMaya has expanded its footprint to reach over 200,000 touchpoints nationwide, the largest network in the country to date.

PayMaya said its network of on-ground and digital touchpoints was six times larger than the combined 12,371 bank branches and 22,162 ATM terminals currently operating across the country.

The financial technology arm of PLDT’s Voyager Innovations Inc. said users could easily pay, add money, cash out, or remit using their accounts through these accessible touchpoints that include convenience stores, retail merchants, groceries, department stores, food outlets, pawnshops, and Smart Padala centers.

“As PayMaya continues to lead the push toward cashless for all Filipinos, it is important for us to provide them with the most expansive and reliable on-ground channels that allow them to do safe and convenient financial transactions, no matter where they are in the country,” PayMaya president Shailesh Baidwan said.

“We have built this robust ecosystem of touchpoints to help ensure that there are easily available and trusted avenues for our customers to add, transact, or move money for all their day-to-day needs,” he said.

PayMaya said its over 37,000 Smart Padala agents are present even in the farthest reaches of the country, covering over 92 percent of all cities and municipalities nationwide.

With banking presence limited to only 69 percent of all cities and municipalities in the country, it said Smart Padala agents are connecting unbanked and underserved Filipinos to the digital economy by offering remittance, bills payment, add money,  cash out, and scan-to-pay transactions.

“PayMaya account holders need not travel very far to city centers as PayMaya’s unrivaled on-ground network of over 37,000 Smart Padala partner agent touchpoints serves as last-mile financial hubs, enabling lifeline transactions amid COVID-19 quarantine restrictions,” it said.

PayMaya said its ecosystem of merchants, payment centers, and financial agents have also become critical, particularly in the government’s push to provide financial aid to those severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and various natural disasters in the past year.