Unionbank’s digital banking unit gets P900-M infusion

MANILA  -The Aboitiz Group’s Union Bank of the Philippines is injecting P900 million in fresh capital to its digital lending arm, UnionDigital Bank, to help sustain its aggressive expansion.

UnionBank said it secured the approval of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for the additional equity investment in UnionDigital, which will be done through the issuance of new shares, a stock exchange filing on Friday showed.

The bank, a part of the Aboitiz family conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures, said the fresh funds would be used to “support business growth and to strengthen its capital position” of its digital bank.

UnionDigital is among a new wave of digital-only lenders granted licenses by the BSP. A few months after its launch, the Aboitiz unit rapidly grew its lending portfolio to more than P5.7 billion at the end of 2022.

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It competes with other players in the space, such as PLDT Inc.-backed Maya and the Gokongwei family’s GoTyme.

Last July, UnionDigital sealed a major alliance with Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes’ group, which is ramping up the presence of its own mobile wallet BigPay in the region.