Alibaba Cloud & FinTech Alliance Philippines launch Industry Sandbox Program to promote inclusive digital finance

First-of-its-kind project to increase access to cloud computing and Fintech technologies among local finance companies.

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, together with the Philippines’ FinTech Alliance.ph, the premier trade association digital players in the country’s digital finance sector, today announced the launch of the Fintech Industry Sandbox Program, a new initiative designed to increase local financial institutions’ access to inclusive digital finance.

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The first-of-its-kind program, in support of the Philippines’ massive digitalization initiatives of the country’s regulators: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), enables local businesses in the finance sector to explore the use of advanced cloud computing products and FinTech services from Alibaba Cloud in a risk-free testing environment.

Under the program each eligible Philippine business will receive up to USD10,000 in cloud coupons, which can be used to adopt Alibaba Cloud’s proven solutions, as well as access to complementary cloud training, technical and industry expertise and regulatory compliance guidance. 

“We created this program with Alibaba Cloud to support emerging digital technologies, which help address current challenges in the financial industry. With more financial companies joining this program, we are glad to see the acceleration of access to inclusive digital finance in the country,” said Lito Villanueva, Founding Chairman of the FinTech Alliance.ph and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer and Executive Vice President of RCBC(Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation).

“Alibaba Cloud and the FinTech Alliance are working hard to create a business-friendly environment for local FinTech companies to deploy digital finance solutions tailored to their needs, and this program is an important step towards this goal. We are excited to collaborate with companies in the Philippine FinTech sector and further contribute to their development,” said Allen Guo, Country Manager for the Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

Beginning this month, the program will be accepting applications from BSP-supervised financial institutions, who are registered with the SEC and meet eligibility criteria. Interested organizations can send their applications to fintechallianceph@alibaba-inc.com.

As the leading public cloud service provider in Asia Pacific, Alibaba Cloud is one of the founding members of the FinTech Alliance.ph, offering its expertise in cloud technology and providing solutions around elastic compute, database, security, storage and network services. It is also developing machine learning and data analytics capabilities to address challenges and unlock opportunities for companies across the FinTech space.

For example, Alibaba Cloud provides a mix of FinTech solutions to GCash, a leading mobile wallet enterprise, to handle large volumes of digital transactions with minimal interruption and high-cost efficiency. The company also works with UBX, the FinTech venture studio and fund spinoff of UnionBank of the Philippines, to provide eKYC (Electronic Know-Your-Customer) solutions. These products are designed to help local financial institutions boost their efficiency and security through digitalizing the identity verification process.

Motivated by the demand for digital solutions and the need for greater financial inclusion, the Philippine FinTech sector has sustained rapid growth in recent years. The Philippine central bank forecasts that the share of digital transactions value will reach at least 50% by 2023.