The collaboration seeks to address a persistent gap in the Philippines: digital payments have expanded rapidly, but access to formal credit remains limited.
Only one in 20 Filipino consumers had a credit card as of October 2025, according to TransUnion. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ 2025 Financial Inclusion Survey, meanwhile, found that 25 percent of adults borrowed money, but only 16 percent borrowed from a formal source.
Digital shift
Digital payments accounted for 57.4 percent of retail payment transactions by volume in 2024, exceeding the BSP’s 50-percent target.
The shift is also evident on PayMongo’s platform, where QR Ph accounted for 55 percent of total payment volume in the first half of 2026, surpassing credit cards.
Under the collaboration, businesses on PayMongo’s network can continue accepting QR Ph payments as usual, without additional terminals, integration or enrollment. The difference is that more customers could arrive with Skyro credit already approved, potentially enabling purchases that otherwise might be postponed.
For Skyro, the arrangement expands the reach of its credit products into PayMongo’s merchant network without having to build its own acceptance infrastructure.
“Skyro has built the credit, and we have built both the places to spend it and the rails to move it,” said PayMongo CEO Jojo Malolos.
Payment rails
Malolos said lenders and fintech companies are increasingly using PayMongo’s infrastructure to move money across the lending cycle, allowing them to focus on their financial products instead of building separate payment systems.
“What this partnership does is put a Skyro credit line in front of thousands of Filipino merchants already running on PayMongo. We are giving those businesses customers who can actually afford to buy,” Malolos said.
PayMongo provides infrastructure that lenders and fintech firms can use to disburse funds, accept payments at merchants and collect repayments.
The arrangement also allows Skyro to broaden digital repayment options across its products, including payments through online banks and e-wallets.
Wider reach
Skyro has issued more than two million product loans in the Philippines. The company uses data analytics and a digital-first application process to assess borrowers, including consumers without formal credit histories.
“Building good, sustainable payments infrastructure is the foundation for financial services to reach customers who are unbanked or underbanked,” said Skyro co-founder and co-CEO Nasim Aliev.
Aliev said the company is moving beyond lending toward financial services that Filipinos can use more frequently in their daily lives, increasing the need for reliable payments infrastructure.
The collaboration comes as the BSP pushes to expand both digital payments and financial inclusion. For PayMongo and Skyro, connecting credit with an established digital payment network could help narrow the divide between Filipinos’ growing ability to pay digitally and their still-limited access to formal credit. —Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
