Setting the context: Financial inclusion in a cash-dependent Philippines

The Philippines has long faced challenges in achieving widespread financial inclusion. Before the pandemic, only 29% of Filipinos had a bank account, while access to savings, investments, insurance, fair lending tools, and even basic digital purchases remained limited or out of reach for most. Infrastructure limitations only deepened the divide—smartphone penetration plateaued at 75%, and rural 4G speeds lagged significantly behind urban areas.

Cash dominated everyday transactions. Over 90% of small-value exchanges relied on physical currency, burdening businesses with 3–5% overhead costs due to manual cash handling.

GCash emerged in this landscape as a mobile payment platform developed by Globe Telecom’s fintech arm, Mynt. Initially offering services like airtime top-ups, bills payment, and remittances, GCash quickly gained traction. But as its user base expanded rapidly, it faced growing technical hurdles:

• User growth: Sustaining seamless user experiences at scale became increasingly complex.

• System limitations: The previous platform could only process up to 400 transactions per second (TPS), creating friction during peak events like holiday campaigns.

• Feature expansion: As GCash moved into credit scoring and wealth management, limitations like the absence of full idempotency sometimes led to duplicate transactions and increased customer service demand.

• Talent capability: Enhancing local expertise in data analytics and risk systems became critical to drive further innovation.

Despite these barriers, GCash's efforts began to pay off. Today, 65% of Filipinos now have a bank account, a testament to how digital finance—led by platforms like GCash—has transformed access and inclusion at scale.

The shift: technical migration through Alipay+ Wallet Tech

In 2019, GCash embarked on a strategic collaboration with Alipay+ Wallet Tech. The result was a phased technical migration that enabled a complete platform overhaul.

This transition unlocked exponential gains:

• Processing capacity surged 3–5×, pushing peak TPS beyond 1,000

• System reliability improved, mitigating downtime during peak usage

• Data storage became more efficient and cost-effective

The migration laid the foundation for scale, just as the pandemic accelerated digital adoption. Within a few years, GCash’s user base tripled. By 2024, 8 in 10 Filipinos had used GCash—solidifying its position as a daily digital companion and the country’s leading financial super app.

Impact to business and financial inclusion

Powering inclusion in the real economy

With a stronger backbone, GCash turned to one of its most ambitious goals: shifting entrenched cash behaviors among the country’s informal and underserved segments. The implementation of the national QR code system (QR Ph) revealed just how reliant sectors like market vendors and tricycle drivers were on physical cash. For instance, among Manila’s 300,000 tricycle drivers—each averaging 50 passengers a day—90% of payments were under ₱20 and paid in cash.

GCash launched a multi-pronged financial inclusion campaign tailored for these sectors:

• Offline payment enablement to enable payment access

• Dynamic QR codes to prevent screenshot fraud

• On-ground education through ‘GCash Ambassadors’ stationed across 100 local markets, helping vendors and drivers shift from physical cash boxes to QR-based transactions

Beyond payments, GCash offered access to savings, credit, and insurance, enabling these workers to build financial resilience in the post-pandemic economy.

Business transformation through ecosystem expansion

With the technical migration complete, GCash began expanding into a holistic digital ecosystem. GLife—its lifestyle marketplace—integrated over 1,000 merchants across categories like food, wellness, retail, and entertainment. The platform’s broader suite of financial services now spans investments, credit, insurance, and more.

Through Alipay+’s cross-border capabilities, GCash also supports seamless payments in over 55 global markets, enabling an estimated 8 million Filipinos to transact with 10 million merchants abroad—a crucial benefit for overseas travelers and workers.

This integrated ecosystem model propelled GCash’s transformation from a payments app into a ‘payments-finance-lifestyle’ platform at national scale. Today:

• 8 in 10 Filipinos have used GCash

• Over 6 million merchants are on the platform

• Mynt, the holding company of GCash, is the first and only $5 billion unicorn in the Philippines

GCash’s evolution reflects a deeper shift not just in technology, but in how digital finance can reshape national economic behavior, foster financial inclusion, and build digital resilience at scale.