GoTyme goes deeper into salary lending, acquires SAVii

MANILA, Philippines  — Gokongwei-backed GoTyme Bank has expanded its payroll-enabled financial products after acquiring salary lender SAVii, a move seen to help employees of the country’s top companies easily access their pay.

GoTyme on Tuesday said its acquisition with JG Summit Holdings Inc., whose subsidiary JG Summit Capital Services Corp. is a majority shareholder of the digital bank, would “boost GoTyme’s growth trajectory while expediting its path to profitability.”

The Philippine-grown SAVii was founded in 2017 by CEO Liam Grealish and fellow entrepreneurs and has a loan book of over P3 billion.

It currently serves at least 500,000 employees across 150 of the Philippines’ largest corporations, according to GoTyme.

READ: GoTyme signs up 2.3 million PH clients

“This acquisition enables us to drive our strategy of deepening customer relationships by offering payroll and financial products that benefit both employees and their employers,” Nate Clarke, GoTyme president and CEO, said in a statement.

SAVii’s salary lending services will be integrated into GoTyme’s lending and payroll system to capture the employed population in the country.

Last April, GoTyme began offering its earned wage access feature to employees of partner companies, allowing the workers to access their salaries every day.

“For us at SAVii, salary is more than just take-home pay—it’s the safest vehicle to financial empowerment,” Grealish said. “Teaming up with GoTyme Bank was a clear and obvious path in our mission to assist individuals in accessing formal finance.”

GoTyme surpassed 2 million users by the end of 2023.

Earlier this year, Zobel family-led Bank of the Philippine Islands sold all of its shares in GoTyme for P902.47 million, citing the need to address a “potential conflict of interest.”

The divestment involved 752.06 million shares, representing 15 percent of GoTyme’s shares. —Meg J. Adonis INQ