Philippine, India to boost fintech cooperation

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine and Indian governments are working to boost cooperation and further develop financial technology in the country.

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto recently met with Indian Ambassador Harsh Jain to explore various areas of cooperation.

“We had a discussion on the cooperation in the field of fintech as well as (overall) development cooperation between our two countries,” Jain said.

“In the next few months, we hope to have further progress on these two,” he said.

The Philippines and India have an existing memorandum of understanding to improve fintech in the country considering that India is a rising economic powerhouse, with forte in digital technology.

Last year, a joint working group was started to enhance economic cooperation in fintech, boost connectivity and interoperability and help develop fintech solutions.

The Department of Finance said both countries have vast potential for economic and development cooperation, especially on digital economy, digital payments, digital infrastructure and financial inclusion.

Over the past three years, the country’s fintech sector grew by nearly 40 percent to almost 300 companies.

“India is providing a lot of focus and attention to developing closer cooperation within Southeast Asia and the Philippines is one of our priority countries,” Jain said.