Angelo Madrid —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Voyager Innovations, the developer of the PayMaya mobile wallet, has hired veteran banker and startup founder Angelo Madrid to head its new digital bank called Maya Bank.
Madrid, a banking and finance lawyer, has 15 years of industry experience, having assumed several leadership roles at Citibank New York, where he cofounded a financial technology startup that allowed customers easier access to loans. Madrid also served as country manager of Tala, a US-based lending startup focused on the Philippines and other emerging markets.
Under his leadership, Tala grew from a five-person operation in 2017 to over 200 employees, serving 1.5 million borrowers in the Philippines.
“With PayMaya’s extensive ecosystem and ubiquitous presence, Maya Bank will hit the ground running,” Madrid said in a statement on Friday. “Our goal is to foster greater inclusion as we offer the best suite of digital banking products and services at scale and with trust and credibility.” Maya Bank, which is still being established, is among the few companies granted a digital banking license by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
“Maya Bank will usher the next phase of our digital financial services journey,” said Shailesh Baidwan, Voyager and PayMaya Philippines president. Baidwan will also serve as director of Maya Bank.
PayMaya is the country’s only end-to-end digital payments ecosystem. This means it serves consumers for their transactions but also payments processing for a host of businesses. It is backed by industry giants PLDT Inc., China’s Tencent Holdings, KKR and the International Finance Corp.