GoTyme Bank set to launch its first loan product in September

GOTYME BANK is set to hold the soft launch of its first lending product in September ahead of its first investment product in the fourth quarter.

GoTyme President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nathaniel D. Clarke told BusinessWorld that the loan product will be offered to merchants through a partnership.

“The merchant or a small business lending product will be the first one [to be offered], which will be soft-launched in September. On the investment side, I would say we’re hoping for early Q4, so October. And that will be available to everyone,” he said.

The bank is a partnership between the Gokongwei group, which holds a 60% stake, and Singapore-based digital banking group Tyme, which has 40%.

GoTyme Co-CEO and Chief Commercial Officer Albert Raymund O. Tinio added that the digital lender will be launching its bills payment function soon.

Mr. Tinio noted that GoTyme also recently launched its capability to scan Quick-Response (QR) codes.

The digital lender is also considering adding bancassurance, but the plan is still under review as GoTyme would need to acquire a license from the Bangko Sentral ntg Pilipinas (BSP) to offer insurance products, Mr. Tinio said. 

“To be candid, we were exploring that as well. Insurance companies are coming over and taking a look at what kind of products we can take in. That’s still under consideration,” he said.

INCREASING KIOSK DEPLOYMENT
GoTyme also raised its deployed kiosk target for the year to 450 from 400 previously as the kiosks deployed by the Gokongwei-led bank were around 280 to 290, Mr. Tinio said.

“We’ve been deploying them all over the Philippines, [in], Luzon, Visayas, [and] Mindanao…[At the] end of the year, it’s still going to go higher — 400 was our original forecast,” he said.

He added that GoTyme has already begun deploying kiosks outside of Robinsons retail stores and malls, but is focusing more on deploying kiosks inside them.

“We started now deploying kiosks outside of the Robinsons retail ecosystem and going now to the wider Gokongwei group employees,” Mr. Tinio said, citing Cebu Pacific, and Universal Robina Corp.

Asked about where the firm is currently more concentrated, he said: “Of course, the close ecosystem, because even at 450 kiosks by the end of the year, we will not have covered all of the ecosystem yet.”

GoTyme is also beginning to deploy onboarding kiosks in Uncle John’s branches, he said.

It is one of the six BSP-licensed digital banks in the country, with the others being Tonik Digital Bank, Inc., Maya Bank, Overseas Filipino Bank, UNObank, and UnionDigital. — Aaron Michael C. Sy