Manila: The Union Bank of the Philippines (Unionbank) announced on Monday that its digitalization investments have adequately prepared it for the implementation of the central bank's open finance strategy in 2021. Unionbank President and CEO Ana Aboitiz-Delgado emphasized their collaboration with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to advance the open finance system.

According to Philippines News Agency, Delgado made these remarks during an online briefing hosted by publicly-listed Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV). She highlighted the industry's nascent stage of open finance, noting that cooperation among industry players is crucial. "Open finance is in very early days in the industry and it requires industry players to cooperate with each other because it requires us to work with each other," she stated. "We feel that it is best channeled through the BSP at this time."

The BSP describes open finance as leveraging customer-permissioned data sharing among banks, financial institutions, and third-party providers (TPPs). This system aims to develop innovative financial solutions such as real-time payments, increased transparency for account holders, and new marketing and cross-selling opportunities.

The open finance system emphasizes consent-driven data portability and collaborative partnerships among stakeholders who prioritize data security and privacy standards. Delgado pointed out that while current efforts focus on BSP measures that encourage stakeholder engagement, Unionbank is actively preparing its enterprise architecture to capitalize on open finance opportunities.

"Within our own ecosystem, within our own implementations, the architecture that we are deploying is already open-finance-ready," Delgado added.