Southeast Asian fintech Salmon acquires controlling stake in Filipino bank
Consumer fintech start-up Salmon has received regulatory approval to acquire a controlling stake in Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa (Laguna), enabling it to become a licenced bank in the Philippines.
Salmon buys controlling stake in Filipino bank, plans to use licence
On completion of the transaction, which is expected to wrap up in the next few weeks, Salmon will own 59.7% of the bank. Following that, the fintech start-up plans to leverage the bank’s licence and its geographic presence to offer consumer credit and debit products across the country powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Founded in July 2022 by banking and IT veterans Pavel Fedorov, George Chesakov and Raffy Montemayor, Salmon went live with its first consumer product – a buy now, pay later (BNPL) offering – in January last year.
With the banking licence in hand, Salmon says it joins a select few fintech companies operating licenced banking institutions in Southeast Asia. It adds that the acquisition will “bolster access to modern banking services for millions of underserved and underbanked Filipinos in key regions including Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao, where Salmon plans to open new branches”, subject to approval by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Salmon also plans to enhance the bank’s physical presence by investing money and technology into the bank to upgrade its products and services for all its customers.
“The transaction will help us reach additional underserved communities in the Philippines, bringing modern, customer-centric and easy-to-access financial services to more people, regardless of smartphone ownership or customer location as we combine offline and online settings for providing our services,” says Montemayor, who also serves as business head in the Philippines for Salmon.
This will increase job opportunity to jobless Filipinos.