- Introduction of Higala: Higala, an inclusive instant payment system (IIPS), has been launched in the Philippines to reduce the cost of real-time payments, targeting the financially excluded population.
- Objective: Higala aims to connect thrift banks, rural banks, and microfinance institutions in the Philippines to instant payments, addressing the low adoption rate of electronic fund transfer services like InstaPay due to high switching and on-ramp costs.
- Solution Offered: Higala seeks to make real-time and instant payments more accessible for consumers and merchants by building white-label app services with core instant payment technology. This initiative aims to support the digital transformation efforts of participating banks.
- Funding and Technology: The system has been launched and seed-funded by Talino Venture Studios and Chemonics International, utilizing the open-source payment platform Mojaloop to facilitate connectivity between various stakeholders, including banks, institutions, payment gateways, merchants, and the central bank.
- Key Features: Higala intends to modernize the country’s digital financial infrastructures by integrating solutions such as regulatory technologies like e-KYC and AML-TF monitoring, AI-based risk detection and management, banking microledgers, and a payment hub for instant fund transfers across participating banks. Additionally, it plans to establish a global transaction gateway for remittance.
- Vision: Vice Catudio, president and CEO of Higala, emphasizes the system’s role in modernizing the country’s financial infrastructures and enabling the participation of financial institutions. Winston Damarillo, CEO of Talino, highlights the goal of ensuring full banking access by reducing barriers to obtaining bank accounts, lowering friction costs for digital payments, and empowering financial institutions, particularly rural banks, to provide these services to their constituents.
