digiCOOP, ADVANCE.AI to spur digital and financial inclusion in the Philippines

Launched in 2020 during the Philippines’ Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), digiCOOP already has 12 federations and 100+ cooperatives using its digital platform. It has also integrated over 400 brick-and-mortar co-op branches into its web channel.

digiCOOP has partnered with Singapore-based startup ADVANCE.AI to support the provision of digital and financial services for the former’s customers.

Registered with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), digiCOOP’s aim is to unite and serve member cooperatives with an ecosystem of digital and financial products and services. Aggregated services offered on its platform include loan application, credit scoring, digital banking, insurance and investment, bill and online payment services, as well as e-learning opportunities.

How ADVACE.AI came into play

ADVANCE (dot) AI specializes in digital identity verification to power smooth and seamless customer onboarding. In the Philippines, for example, it can remotely onboard and verify a real user’s identity by scanning a range of national identity documents, such as the Philippines’ passport, UMID, SSS and TIN, and matching the image with a selfie taken with the phone’s camera. All this can be completed in under 60 seconds. Other services it provides include fraud and risk management, as well as alternative credit scoring services.

Officials from digiCOOP said that their goal is to reduce systemic inefficiency and lack of financial inclusion by increasing the 20% banked Filipino families to at least 50% within five years. Their partnership with ADVANCE (dot) AI and their expertise in digitally onboarding customers through seamless and secure digital identity verification supports their vision of enabling unbanked and underserved Filipino segments of society to build their own wealth, participate in a lively digital and financial ecosystem, and pass on the coop legacy to the next tech-adept generation.

Also commenting on the partnership, ADVANCE.AI’s representatives said that economic advancement for the grassroots and union workers can only happen by increasing trust and confidence in the use of digital technology. They are happy about this partnership and advancing digiCOOP’s mission of digital as well as financial accessibility and sustainability for the grassroots. Nowadays, the traditional customer onboarding process is simple, secure, and can be completed entirely on their mobile phone. All they need to join the digiCOOP platform is a national identity document and an internet connection.