Fintech to launch online finance hub for women

UBX Corp., the fintech subsidiary of Unionbank of the Philippines, recently formed a partnership with Bixie Pte. Ltd., to launch an open finance platform targeting women.

Under the partnership, the Singapore-based Bixie will leverage UBX’s platform to disburse aid funds directly to Filipino women beneficiaries through a “last mile” disbursement network of the Unionbank unit’s the banking-as-a-service venture called “i2i.”

The i2i has a network of over 3,000 banking agents that provide basic banking solutions and services in unserved and underserved areas in the Philippines, according to UBX.

In one of their studies, the World Bank said providing women with greater control over household chores through their own earnings or cash transfers boosts the country’s growth prospects by changing spending habits that will benefit their children.

“Our partnership with Bixie enables us to accelerate our goal of financially empowering women to drive growth to the society,” UBX Managing Director for Banking Services Anne B. Yosuico was quoted in a statement as saying.

To familiarize them with the system, Bixie has also started to provide Filipino women with free personal accident with telemedicine insurance policies to women through UBX’s embedded insurance platform.

Bixie also has a digital ledger/financial goal tracker that provides women insights on their spending. It also features a digital community center that allows members to share their financial goals and milestones, UBX said.

According to the fintech, Bixie also hosts live events on its social media platforms discussing topics such as entrepreneurship, insurance, savings, and investment tools, and even including digital assets such as non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrencies.

Bixie’s partners include various aid and humanitarian groups that channel their assistance to women from developing countries through Bixie’s platform.

Bixie CEO Rosalia Gitau said there still a lot to be done to address the huge market gap in finance worth at least $3 trillion.

“I see a future where women can turn our network into our net worth– and Web3 technology enables that,” Gitau was quoted as saying. “At Bixie, we are building the world’s first female aggregator in Web3, turning our social capital into real capital.”

“UBX and Bixie share the common goal of driving financial access to each individual. This is just the initial phase of the partnership,” Singapore-based UBX Managing Director Cyrus Cruz was quoted in a statement as saying. “We aim to introduce more tools and services in Bixie’s platform, including micro investments and other wealth generation programs.”