The adoption rate of financial technology in the Philippines among the population aged 15 years old and over through mobile apps may increase to 72.2 percent or 59.3 million users by the end of 2023, according to a new report from consumer credit service Digido.

Digido said in a statement on Monday that the maximum growth of this indicator is expected to come from the payments and transfers segment (+17.6 percent), followed by e-wallets (+4.9 percent), digital banking (+4.3 percent), digital investments (+3.7 percent) and digital lending (+0.9 percent).

The smallest growth, however, is in blockchain and cryptocurrencies (-4.3 percent).

Digido believes that the payments sector will be the main driver of the future adoption of fintech.

It noted that the sector could equally be any of the following: electronic wallets, digital banking and applications that are not related to either the first or the second (payment of bills, taxes, etc.).

As long as the country holds the course towards digitalization, inertial movements towards the “fintechization” of the population will not weaken, it said.

Last year, the adoption rate of fintech services among the population aged 15 years old and over in the Philippines reached 69.3 percent from 64.4 percent in 2021.

According to Digido, the Philippine fintech infrastructure shows high adaptability to ever-emerging challenges, both through strong government support and a large domestic market.

Similar to the region as a whole, the largest contributor is the e-commerce sector, with adoption among adults close to 100 percent in the Philippines at the end of 2022.

Of the 867 actively used fintech applications in the Philippines, the digital banking and e-wallets segments are the most popular — with 163 (18.8 percent) and 134 (15.5 percent), respectively, followed by payments and transfers with 104 (11.9 percent), wealth management with 86 (9.9 percent) and digital lending with 84 (9.6 percent).

The payments and transfers segment exhibited the highest download growth rate at 11.3 percent per month from 2018 to 2022, followed by business management (10.7 percent) and financial advisors (8.4 percent).

The lowest is in the digital insurance sector, with only 0.7 percent.

Digido has also revealed that, among the adult population in the Philippines, the adoption rate of fintech services has almost tripled over the past five years.

In terms of user growth in the past five years, main contributors to the development of the fintech industry in the Philippines are e-wallets (+1026 percent), digital lending (+330 percent) and e-commerce (+222 percent).

However, in turn, digital lending shows more stable annual growth rates than all other fintech sectors in the Philippines.

“The findings from our report indicate that the inertial movements towards the ‘fintechization’ of the population is going from strength to strength，

“The country’s fintech infrastructure is also showing high adaptability to ever-emerging challenges, mainly due to a large domestic market and progressive government support,” Digido country manager Farit Shakirov said.

“As it stands, there remains opportunity for the fintech industry to maintain momentum and build towards a more vibrant ecosystem by cultivating further trust in their services by providing seamless, communicable user experiences and fruitful collaborations,” he added.

Filipinos spent 4.4 million hours using e-wallet apps in 2022, says Digido