Digital banking pioneer and trailblazer in the financial technology space UnionBank launched its inaugural Innovation Festival titled "The Future of Banking is with U," marking the Philippines' serious appetite to become a regional fintech hub.

"The Innovation Festival aims to showcase the many initiatives of Union Bank with our partners in the banking and financial sectors," said Albert Cuadrante, UBP's chief marketing officer, in an interview on the Daily Tribune's morning show, Gising Na!

"We want to do this annually in the succeeding years to highlight the latest digital transformation technologies. If you visit our booths, you will see our collaborations with our partners, like Huawei, Globe, and other strategic allies," Cuadrante added.

Held in one-hectare real property development in San Pedro, Laguna, the festival was attended by the who's who in Philippine and regional fintech space, including President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., who was so impressed with the launch that he described it as "precisely the kind of innovations, the kind of forward-thinking, operations, and actions that we will need, he said," "not only in the private sector but also in the public sector so that we in government can participate in the new digital world, wherein we are living in more and more in our day-to-day lives."

UnionBank chief technology & operations officer and chief transformation officer Henry R. Aguda said the Innovation Festival and the Innovation Campus started as a dream. "Today is a testimony that we can achieve anything we set our minds to," said Aguda about the event in his welcoming remarks.