GCash’s P69-B cash pile provides lift as profit growth gets tougher

Insider Spotlight

• Mynt ended June with P68.6 billion in cash, while deposit interest income jumped 45 percent to P2.56 billion.
• Net income rose 7 percent even as Ebitda slumped 4 percent, showing how interest income is supporting profit growth. 
• GCash keeps growing fast, but lower transfer fees and tighter regulation could put more pressure on margins in the second half.

GCash is living up to its name.

The fintech giant has accumulated a huge cash pile of its own, and that money is helping lift profits as its growth story enters a tougher, more mature phase.

Parent Mynt ended June with P68.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents, while interest income from deposits jumped 45 percent to P2.56 billion in the first half, financial data from its latest prospectus showed. 

Cash does some heavy lifting

That extra income is proving particularly useful as earnings from Mynt’s underlying operations come under pressure ahead of its blockbuster initial public offering.

This helped net income rise 7 percent to P10.82 billion during the first six months of 2026. 

But during this same period, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) slipped 4 percent to P11.76 billion and its Ebitda margin narrowed sharply to 27.3 percent from 31.3 percent.

Ebitda strips out interest, taxes and other accounting charges, giving investors a clearer look at how the underlying business itself is performing.

Martha Sazon 

GCash CEO 

Bigger, but earning less

The pressure is not coming from a lack of activity, with payments through GCash climbing 23 percent to P9.84 trillion and monthly active users rising 11 percent to 41.5 million.

Mynt is simply making less from all that activity, with its payments take rate falling to 0.25 percent from 0.32 percent as restrictions on in-app gambling weighed on payment solutions revenue.

Another squeeze will start showing up in the second half after GCash cut bank transfer fees to P10 from P15 on July 4 following new Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas rules on electronic payment charges.

More pressure ahead

The cut comes as several of the country’s biggest banks have dropped online transfer fees altogether, putting pressure on mobile wallets to lower charges as competition for digital transactions intensifies.

Mynt itself flagged the risk to IPO investors, warning that tighter rules on transfer fees and lending charges “may reduce our margins or revenues” from affected products and services.

—Edited by Miguel R. Camus