MANILA - Neobank or the all-digital Tonik on Monday said it has acquired a digital bank license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas after the regulator expanded its banking categories.

The license will strengthen its foothold in the digital banking space with the rollout of additional financial services such as lending and payments, Tonik said in a statement.

The BSP has recently recognized digital banks as a new bank category. Under its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, the BSP aims to digitalize at least 50 percent of financial transactions and to encourage 70 percent of Filipinos to own financial accounts before 2023.

“We are truly privileged to be working with a regulator such as the BSP who shares the same vision of bolstering financial inclusion in the country,” Tonik Country President Long Pineda said.

“An official digital bank license will enable us to offer more products and services to narrow the gap between the banked population and the huge underserved segment in the Philippines," she added.

Tonik launched in March 2021 and has secured over P1 billion in retail deposits. It previously held a rural bank license from the central bank enabling it to offer retail banking services.

The bank, accessible via a mobile app, offers deposit interest rates of up to 6 percent per annum. Deposits are also insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp, it said.

Other traditional banks with digital services as well as mobile wallets have been offering deposits, payments and loan financial services in the country.

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