(from left to right) : Foo Boon Ping, Managing Editor, The Asian Banker, Paul Chow – former Chief Executive of Hong Kong Exchange, Mynt President and CEO Anthony Thomas, and David Gyori, International Resource Director, The Asian Banker.
Anthony Thomas, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mynt is this year’s recipient of the Asian Banker Innovation Leadership Award for the Philippines.
The Asian Banker is a leading provider of strategic intelligence on the financial services industry established in 1996. It is in the business of helping decision makers develop creative solutions around research and intelligence to achieve tangible business goals.
The Asian Banker introduced the ‘Innovation Leadership Achievement Awards’ category in 2017 under the Leadership Achievement Awards program to underscore the importance of sound and visionary leadership in creating and fostering an environment and culture of innovation in individual institutions and also playing a role in shaping the industry. It seeks to recognize distinguished executives whose vision, efforts, and commitment inspire and champion the innovation that are already well regarded by peers in the industry.
“I am humbled by this recognition as this represents the entire Mynt team’s efforts for the Philippines. This Innovation Leadership award from the Asian Banker is also recognizes Innovation is very much seen with the Fintech and startup sector in the country. We will continue to innovate as we strive to provide the best customer experience for all GCash users and our partner merchants,” said Anthony M. Thomas, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mynt.
Thomas joined Mynt as Chief Operating Officer in 2015 as part of the founding leadership team and was appointed President and CEO in 2017. Under his care, Mynt has reached over 7 million GCash users and has so far, deployed 16,000 GCash QRs to over 6,000 partner merchants. GCash is also leading in mobile payments through its Scan-to-Pay technology and will soon allow partner merchants to accept Alipay transactions via the GCash QR.
Thomas believes that there is still a lot to be done in the Fintech space in the Philippines even as he expressed optimism that by disrupting traditional channels through digital financial technology services, Mynt would be able to provide financial access for more consumers and merchants, and organizations.
“We are trying to solve the problem of access to basic payments and financial services for Filipinos. Nearly 7 out of 10 do not have access to a bank account, 34% of municipalities do not have a physical bank branch, 90% of the population does not have formal credit. This is what we want to work on and hopefully make a positive impact,” he said.
Mynt is a partnership between Globe Telecom, the Ayala Corporation, and Ant Financial. It operates two fintech companies: GCash, a micropayment service that transforms the mobile phone into a virtual wallet for secure, fast, and convenient money transfer, and Fuse, a tech-based lending company that enables Filipinos to get microloans to business loans without the traditional requirements set by banks and other lending institutions.