Gokongwei-backed GoTyme sets Q3 launch

Gokongwei-backed GoTyme Bank is gearing for its launch in the third quarter of 2022, promising “better savings interest rewards” and high quality banking products and services.

One of the country’s six digital bank licenses holders, GoTyme also underscored cybersecurity features to combat potential threats.
“Without good cybersecurity, you can’t have trust,” Chris Bennett, chief technology officer at GoTyme, said in a statement. “We make use of the best security controls throughout the lifecycle.”

GoTyme said it “heavily invested” in cybersecurity tools as financial institutions remain prime targets for criminals.

The digital lender, a venture between the Gokongwei group and Singapore’s Tyme, said it was also a cloud-first and cloud-only enterprise, allowing it to react faster to online threats.

“Being ‘cloud only’, we can make changes fast,” Bennett said. “We bring experiences of tackling threats from South Africa and we’ve been able to integrate some of the latest security tools.”

Digital banks are a new category of lenders created by the BSP to reach the vast majority of Filipinos without a bank account.

This means they can offer a host of financial services that regular banks provide, including savings and loans, but without having a physical branch network since business is conducted online.

The BSP earlier capped the number of digital bank licenses to six players, including Maya Bank, Overseas Filipino Bank, Tonik Bank, UNObank and UnionDigital.

UnionDigital was the latest to begin operations on Tuesday. Previously, Overseas Filipino Bank, Tonik and Maya started operations