The electronic issuer licence, when approved, will enable Peppermint to provide loan services not only to registered bizmoto agents but also to the broader Filipino population.

In July, fintech company Peppermint Innovation (ASX:PIL) achieved a significant milestone in its core market of the Philippines after being awarded a financial lending licence in the country.

The new licence gave PIL the ability to execute on its primary strategy, which is to provide an alternative non-bank micro-enterprise lending platform to Filipino customers.

Under the terms of the licence, Peppermint can now offer alternative non-bank micro-enterprise loans to its qualified bizmoto agents, registered bizmoto network members and enterprise platform partners.

Following that approval, the company immediately commenced a 3-month pilot program for a select number of bizmoto agents to test out the bizmoPay platform and identify and optimise any friction points or blockages to ensure efficient  system operations  before it started offering the loan program across its network of more  than 55,000 registered bizmoto agents.

The pilot program has now exceeded original targets, which has led to more than 150 bizmoto agents signing up to trial the new offering.

Peppermint’s CEO, Chris Kain, told Stockhead the company has outstripped its own expectations by the end of September in terms of the loans it wanted to provide.

He said an underlying trend that had  emerged during the pilot program was those agents who received bizmoPay loans actually increased their transactional volume across the bizmoto ecosystem of services.

“We’re starting to get a picture of an overall positive impact on the agents’ ability to conduct transactions across the platform, which is exactly what we wanted to do,” Kain said.

And of course, the more transactions across the platform, the greater revenue that the company earns.”

Peppermint expects its bizmoPay’s micro loans offering to reach $30m during  the next three years.

Asked how the company could ensure repayments are made, Kain explained that the bizmoto ecosystem was designed as a closed loop system that encouraged users to repay back loans.

“If users reduce the balance of their wallet then by virtue, they have to be collecting cash on the other side,” Kain explained.

“So if they don’t put money back into the wallet, then they can’t keep operating and their incentive is to keep putting money back so they can earn a fee every time they complete a transaction.”

 

Electronic issuer licence

The non-bank lending space in the Philippines is currently undergoing massive changes, especially in the mobile app space where users have exploded as more people access non-bank loan finance through their mobiles.

To capitalise on this momentum, Kain said the next level of regulatory licensing that Peppermint would be chasing is an Electronic Money Issuer  (EMI) licence.

With an EMI  licence in place, he believes that Peppermint could turbocharge its capabilities in the digital transaction space, particularly when combined with the loans it’s already able to make.

Although there is no specific timeline on when the EMI  licence would be issued, Kain said that it is part of the company’s  phase 3 objectives.

“In February, we told the market about our phase 2 objective, which was about the launch of bizmoPay,” he said.

“We’ve done that and ticked that box, so now we’re moving into our phase 3 objective,” Kain added.

“An EMI licence provides the opportunity to facilitate any e-money transaction and service open-loop e-wallet accounts, providing all Filipinos, not just bizmoto agents, with a convenient and secure way to receive digital money and services.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Peppermint, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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