Philippines’ UnionDigital Bank May Join the NFT Market

UnionDigital Bank has announced that it is considering entering the non-fungible token (NFT) market, according to a Business Mirror report Tuesday (Dec. 21).

Speaking at a virtual media roundtable on Dec. 15, UnionDigital Bank CEO Ramon Vicente de Vera said that the bank had a “keen interest” in the digital art.

There are currently around 250 FinTechs operating in the Philippines right now, which de Vera said was an indication that the economy was ready to accept NFTs and that cryptocurrency could do well there.

“We are also the top in the social media usage in the world six years in a row,” de Vera added. “The Philippines is also number one in Internet usage in the world, averaging 10 hours and 56 minutes per day.”

UnionDigital, a subsidiary of UnionBank, is the only publicly-listed Philippines bank to get a license to operate a digital-native bank.

Henry Rhoel R. Aguda, the UnionBank senior executive vice president, said the bank is working alongside another company, not affiliated with the government, to pilot its digital asset custody service.

Aguda is also the lender’s chief technology, operations and transformation officer. He said that the bank had other plans to help workers in the gig economy, and that it would be doing something related to the metaverse.

He said the digital transitions the bank is doing have helped it survive the pandemic, adding that they “changed the way we live, the way we travel, the way we interact one another,” and that the financial sector, too, had been forever changed.

Earlier this year, PYMNTS reported that UnionBank partnered with Visa to help let FinTechs develop personalized payment gateways.

See also: Visa, UnionBank Collaborate to Offer FinTechs Personalized Payment Gateways

According to the companies, the collaboration was intended to make “relevant payment solutions” through engaging with FinTechs, including allowing for easy, secure money transfers.

The FinTechs will now have access to, reportedly, the kinds of tech they would have if they were a much larger company like Visa.