Trusting Social Philippines optimizes Big Data and AI to spread financial inclusion to all Filipinos

Half of Filipino adults still don’t have access to formal financial accounts. Trusting Social is helping change that—using AI and telco data to deliver fast, paperless credit scoring for millions of underbanked Filipinos. Its technology empowers banks to reach underserved communities, helping lower interest rates, boost approval rates, and unlock opportunities even in remote provinces.

Under the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) 2022-2028, launched by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2022, financial inclusion has been clearly established as a national priority in the Philippines. While substantial progress has been achieved, including 25.8 million Basic Deposit Accounts by Q4 2024 and a 24.3% increase in household loans fueled by improved financial systems and positive consumer sentiment, a significant gap remains. The World Bank's Global Findex 2025 shows that only 50.2% of Filipino adults had financial accounts in 2024, a statistic that falls short of regional peers and highlights the pressing need to enhance financial inclusion.

Even with the rise of digital banking, e-commerce, and the expansion of financial infrastructure designed to reach underserved communities, significant work lies ahead for comprehensive financial inclusion. Persistent challenges, including limited internet connectivity, gaps in financial literacy, and the crucial element of public trust, continue to impede progress. These barriers highlight the need for innovative efforts to mitigate risks while expanding essential financial services to every corner of the country.

 

Responding to the BSP's call for innovation, financial institutions are increasingly leveraging technology and partnering with companies to expand financial services and access for all. A key player in this endeavor is Trusting Social, a leading Asian fintech AI company. Established in 2013 in the US, the company quickly built a strong foothold across Vietnam, Singapore, India, and Indonesia, providing it with invaluable experience that now directly benefits the Philippines' financial landscape.

Drawing on extensive experience within Asia’s developing economies, Trusting Social entered the Philippines in 2019 to address financial exclusion, focusing on enhancing access to formal credit for the underbanked. Recognizing that more Filipinos have mobile phones than financial accounts, Trusting Social's AI-driven credit scoring system, similar to its foundational work in mobile-first Vietnam, analyzes masked, anonymized, and aggregated telco data. This technology provides a crucial alternative to traditional credit scoring, empowering lenders to reach millions of creditworthy, underserved borrowers often overlooked by conventional banking.

By offering an alternative to traditional scoring, Trusting Social's insights facilitate universal access to financial services from regulated lenders, enabling fast, paperless approvals. Trusting Social's credit insights extend this reach far beyond Metro Manila, connecting even those in distant provinces with feature phones and agri-based incomes. The company's platforms have particularly benefited mass market consumers, including women who benefit from higher approval rates and sustained credit access, ultimately helping to lower interest rates by guiding consumers towards formal credit.

“The traditional banking system was inherently blind to hundreds of millions of deserving individuals lacking financial history—that's the fundamental flaw Trusting Social was built to fix,” shared Nguyen Nguyen, Founder and CEO of Trusting Social. “Through data science and technology, we empower financial institutions to bridge that financial access divide with insights far beyond their legacy capabilities. We've shown, market after market in Asia, that financial well-being is within reach, and we built the exact solutions to deliver it."

 

In the broader picture, a financially inclusive economy serves as a powerful engine for fostering entrepreneurship, investment, job creation and innovation, strengthening the overall financial system. For emerging markets like the Philippines, where financial access remains a critical challenge, this empowerment enables businesses and individuals to significantly improve their livelihoods, build resilience, and navigate unexpected crises.

 

Trusting Social's credit insights are accelerating this impact, processing an average of 120 billion records weekly, enabling over a million borrowers monthly, and facilitating around $500 million in unsecured portfolio. This scale has earned the confidence of over 50 leading financial institutions and businesses in the Philippines, from top commercial banks to start-up lenders, all while upholding strict data privacy and security in compliance with GDPR, Philippine, and other local laws.

 

“Our work in the Philippines has been driven by one core belief: that advanced data science can help bridge the financial inclusion divide in the country. We echo the government’s drive for ensuring no Filipino is invisible to financial opportunities. And through that mission, we've quietly refined, expanded and proven our solutions. Now, recognizing the ongoing challenges and the exciting momentum in the country, it's time to openly partner with those who believe, as we do, that there's still crucial work to be done together,” said Johnny Escaler, CEO of Trusting Social Philippines.