Maya, an all-in-one digital bank, has eased loan applications for micro, small and medium enterprises, or MSMEs, through its integrated payment and business processing system.

Renan Santiago, Maya's head for retail and MSMEs, said 70 to 80 percent of small entrepreneurs in the country do not have access to business financing and can benefit from e-wallet retail payments to build their credit scores quickly and access funds to sustain or grow their business.

Through the Maya Business app, Santiago said MSME owners can accept digital payments from customers with funds from traditional banks and deposit them into the Maya business account to start creating a credit score.

Business capital

Lenders use the credit score to determine the capability of borrowers to repay a loan based on their financial behaviors and transactions.

"We will facilitate your financial transactions linked to other traditional banks instead of the individual customers or vendors processing payments from the banks," Santiago said at DAILY TRIBUNE's Asian Innovation Forum at Ayala Malls Manila Bay in Parañaque City on 8 December.

The forum gathered company executives, government officials, and owners of micro, small and medium enterprises to exchange ways of achieving financial security and providing necessary and unique goods and services to the public.

"We want to simplify the system. We are the integrator of payments," Santiago stressed. He explained that Maya users can improve their credit scores by using the digital bank's app regularly.

"Deposits at Maya Bank create your credit score for loans. You can build your transactions using the Maya app and engage in its ecosystem, where digital payments are used to further obtain business capital amid the growing use of e-wallets in the country," Santiago said.

Santiago said Maya business deposit accounts offer a "very competitive" rate of 2.5 percent per annum, or four times bigger than other banks.

Meanwhile, he said loan amounts have been expanded to P2 million under the Maya SME Flexi Loan. This allows Maya customers to receive credit within three months if they use its 1-2-3 Grow Bundle or product solutions for business payments, loans and deposits.

"For the 1-2-3 Grow Bundle that offers the Maya Flexi Loan, we started offering this program to our select, eligible Maya merchants last 15 June. We are progressively expanding this to more users," Santiago said.