LOCAL mobile phone-based lender Tala Financing Philippines Inc. announced its borrower base has hit a million in the Philippines.
Worldwide, the technology company based in Santa Monica, California, US has disbursed over $2-billion worth of loans to over six million customers, according to a statement by its Philippine office.
To note, Tala has been flagged in a Bloomberg story (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-12/tech-startups-are-flooding-kenya-with-apps-offering-high-interest-loans?srnd=premium-africa&sref=0GcdEyL2) as “flooding Kenya with apps offering high-interest loans.”
The company cited an “Aimee” who “is just one of Tala’s one million customers in the Philippines.”
The company, which is not in the list of accredited firms by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said that apart from providing accessible loans, it also “offers other services to help its customers grow in all aspects of their financial lives.”
“The personal finance service app has free financial education through its robust library of tailored educational content. It also hosts in-person and online communities to help Tala users connect and learn from each other.”
“We want to position ourselves as the unbanked Filipino’s safe and trusted partner in achieving financial autonomy,” Tala Country Manager Angelo Madrid was quoted in the statement as saying. “Through our commitment to fair and ethical lending, we hope to give everyone the opportunity to pursue life’s greater goals and advance their financial health.”
According to Madrid, while “more than 5.2 billion Filipinos own mobile phones and more than 4.6 billion are connected to the internet.”
“And yet only 12 percent of mobile phone owners use their devices to perform financial transactions,” according to Madrid. ”We believe that everyone needs access to financial systems and for them to be in control of their money. By making loans simpler and more accessible, we can promote financial agency and autonomy for more Filipinos.”
Tala Financing said it offers a “minimal, upfront and one-time fee.”