Tonik expands lending portfolio

MANILA, Philippines — Digital branchless bank Tonik plans to introduce home loans worth up to P2.5 million in its second year of operations in line with its goal to speed up financial inclusion in the country.

Tonik CEO and founder Greg Krasnov yesterday said the firm would expand its lending portfolio in the next 12 months by venturing into buy now, pay later scheme and home loans of up to $50,000, or around P2.5 million.

Further, Krasnov said Tonik will integrate its cryptocurrency with its proprietary app to widen the opportunities that Filipinos can get using digital assets.

“Armed with our unwavering dedication to accelerate financial inclusion in the country, Tonik assures that more accessible, simplified and customer-centric banking products will be available to more Filipinos in many more years to come,” Krasnov said.

“The Philippines is one of the biggest markets in demand of cryptocurrency and lending services in the world, and we are laser focused on making these available soon in our app,” he said.

Tonik yesterday marked its maiden year of activity as the first digital and branchless bank, also called a neobank, in the Philippines.

Tonik secured more than $20 million, or about P1 billion, worth of retail deposits, in the first months of its operations, and then grew it to over $100 million, or at least P5 billion, eight months later.

It also introduced innovative systems for deposit, payment and card products like time deposit rates of up to six percent per annum and quick loan, its first cash loan offering.

Tonik raised $131 million from its latest Series B funding led by Mizuho Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in Asia and the Pacific.

“2021 has been a challenge for all of us, we saw how the health crisis increased the demand for digital banking and cashless services,” Krasnov said.

“We are happy to have been able to provide efficient neobanking services to Filipinos as we all navigated through the pandemic,” he said.

Tonik is supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and its deposits are insured by state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., with its systems hooked to cloud-based services of global financial technology leaders like Amazon, Finastra and Mastercard.