Blog and Updates
Fintech for Good: Cleaning Up Outdated Payment Systems in the Philippines
It’s no secret that there’s a lot of unscrupulous, under the table deals within our local government agencies. But 2025 is the year where huge leaps are being taken to finally replace these outdated payment systems. New technologies, after all, offer transparency and better payment security. This promotes accountability for all parties involved in the payments and disbursement process.
By: Kristel Serran
GCash
Digital Transformation
Online Fraud
Online Payments
Payment Gateway
e-Commerce Challenges
The Philippines is economically dynamic yet structurally fragmented. Fintech companies in the last five years have stepped up to provide convenience and act as a critical force for good.
One huge example is Gcash’s 254% year-on-year growth in 2020, which helped provide digital payments even to a mostly unbanked Filipino population.
As payment challenges and corruption continue to plague local government units (LGUs), rural banks, cooperatives, and high-risk sectors like online gambling, more payment service providers (PSPs) see that working for the Philippine market means urgent enforcement of transparency, accessibility, and efficiency to provide better services for Filipinos here and abroad.
This payments digitization was led by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, who has already surpassed its goal of digitizing 50% of the retail payments for their ‘Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2018-2023’.
Digital payments in the Philippines went up from 42.1% in 2022, to 52.8% in 2023.
That’s a huge feat, supported by fintech startups and seasoned payment service providers on the sidelines.
1. Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Local Government Units (LGUs) Despite reforms, many LGUs still face issues of disbursement fraud, manual cash handling, and ghost beneficiaries. Public funds often get misallocated or delayed due to outdated systems and a lack of digital oversight.
2. Struggles of Rural Banks and Cooperatives Rural banks and cooperatives are lifelines for many Filipinos, yet they are plagued by:
3. Unbanked and Underbanked Populations 44% of Filipinos remain unbanked, with limited or no access to formal financial services. This creates a reliance on informal lenders and cash-based transactions, which perpetuates poverty and financial exclusion.
4. Online Gambling and Money Laundering The rise of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) has attracted global scrutiny. Reports of money laundering and the lack of clear financial trails have cast a shadow over this industry, prompting government crackdowns and loss of investor confidence.
5. Fragmented Disbursement and Payment Ecosystems Multiple government agencies and private sector players use siloed systems, making it difficult to track financial flows, enforce compliance, and improve service delivery. There is still no centralized payment system that will provide transparency from source of funds to its receiver/s.
However, that’s about to change as white-label payment gateways like AltPayNet provide affordable and industry-specific payment systems for every private business or government agency needs.
Fintech companies like AltPayNet are stepping in with innovative, secure, and scalable solutions designed to:
1. Digitize and Centralize Disbursements A robust disbursement platform like DIZtance – a white-label disbursement platform.
Local Government Units (LGUs) and agencies can now distribute aid, salaries, and subsidies transparently with full audit trails and real-time reporting.
Ghost beneficiaries and delayed releases will be a thing of the past, once government agencies and businesses adopt this new payment system.
2. Empower Rural Banks and Cooperatives A full-stack white-label payment solution like TLPE allow small banks to launch modern digital payment gateways without building infrastructure from scratch. This levels the playing field and gives rural players the tools they need to compete and grow.
3. Offer Full KYC and AML Integration For businesses dealing with high-risk sectors, there are fintech companies that can provide them with real-time transaction monitoring, advanced KYC verification, and AI-based AML reporting. This transforms potential regulatory risks into opportunities for responsible growth.
4. Increase Financial Inclusion with White-Label Wallets white-label biller platforms like Billeroo enable organizations to launch e-wallets and payment services targeting the unbanked. With mobile-first experiences, Taglish interfaces, and bill payment features, more Filipinos can join the formal economy, here and abroad.
5. Build Trust with Transparent Systems Fintech builds trust by automating compliance, streamlining processes, and offering dashboards for real-time oversight. There is simply no room for discrepancies once these payment systems are integrated in businesses or LGUs.
Whether it's for public funds or private remittances, people feel more secure when systems are built to be transparent and accountable.
The future of fintech in the Philippines isn’t just about apps or faster payments. It’s about rebuilding trust in institutions, giving more Filipinos a stake in the digital economy, and cleaning up systems that have been broken for decades.
As a white-label fintech provider, AltPayNet believes in co-building with stakeholders: from LGUs and rural banks to cooperatives and enterprises. Together, we can turn fragmented financial systems into inclusive, transparent, and future-ready networks.
Current fintech innovations hold massive responsibilities to right all that is wrong in our current government systems. And in the Philippines, it's an important foundation for generations to come.
Send us an email at info@altpaynet.com so we can help you set up the right payment tools for your business.
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