35 days to financial freedom

Tens of millions of people in the Philippines have no access to financial services. Many need a loan—and could repay it if they had a bank account. Unfortunately, most Philippine banks aren’t set up to provide microlending services. 

But for many families, borrowing money is the first step on the road to prosperity, a road that leads to the purchase of a house or the launch of a new business. Collectively, unbanked Filipinos represent a large, untapped market.

UnionDigital Bank aspired to be the local bank that served this segment, empowering ordinary Filipino families to = move towards a brighter financial future. 

In August 2023, Huawei partnered with Sunline, a fintech firm, to help UnionDigital Bank build a next-generation core platform for loan services. Delivering the project took just 35 days, but it created a platform that opened the door for millions of unbanked Filipinos to access financial services. 

"It's this population of 70 to 80 million people making less than 10,000 pesos, or US$200 per month," said Ron Puno, UnionDigital's Chief Technology and Transformation Officer. "How do we extend loans to them in a faraway area quickly? The only way to do that is through digital means."

To offer banking services underpinned by intelligent technologies, UnionDigital needed to scale up its core ICT systems. These upgrades would have to comply with the country’s regulatory standards while guaranteeing stability during surges in the use of a new microlending platform.

UnionDigital turned to its partner Huawei for the cloud infrastructure that would underpin this project. Huawei, in turn, worked with a Chinese fintech, Sunline, to deploy the new system.

UnionDigital and Huawei kicked off the project in August 2023, with Sunline joining in September. The three partners agreed to launch the core system in 35 days, a rapid deployment necessary to meet the regulatory standards of the Philippines’ central bank. This was the first time Huawei was involved in moving a core banking system to the Cloud. 

Generally, a project of this scale takes three to six months to deliver. Huawei and Sunline mobilized a large group of senior experts to make it happen in 35 days. UnionDigital was impressed.

"Once people start to tell other people that you can rely on this, then more and more people will use it," Puno says. "It will change how banking is done in the Philippines."

A large number of loan applications are now being processed every day through this system. This has helped UnionDigital rank among the top in terms of FinTech in the Philippines.

Millions of Filipinos now can see new financial pathways opening up before them where, until recently, there were only roadblocks. 

Strengthened by this experience, Huawei will continue working with Sunline and other partners to help more banking customers worldwide benefit from digital finance. Through joint solution innovation,

Huawei plans to work with its partners to promote the transformation and upgrade of financial institutions and provide customers with efficient, secure, and innovative technology.

Watch this video to learn more.