On December 15, Unionbank revealed its possible plans of venturing into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in 2022.
During the virtual media roundtable E-TalkTales, UnionBank Senior Executive Vice President Henry Aguda and CEO of UnionBank’s digital-native banking arm UnionDigital Arvie de Vera shared details of Unionbank’s achievement in 2021 and their future ventures in 2022.
One of these is their foray into NFTs.
According to verge.com, “NFTs allow people to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items and keep track of who owns them using the blockchain. They can technically contain anything digital, including drawings, animated GIFs, songs, or items in video games.”
Some of the examples they cited during the virtual roundtable were the popular NFT-based online game Axie Infinity and Mir4.
During the event, Aguda and de Vera also shared Unionbank’s achievements in 2021.
Some of these are:
- Being the only publicly listed Philippine bank to be granted a license to operate a digital-native bank
- The successful groundbreaking of the UnionBank Innovation Campus, the country’s first-ever learning institution focused on digital innovation
- Having 21 patents for its innovative offers already approved and 18 more on the way
- The integration of Instapay 2.0 into its digital banking platform
- The successful launch of the UnionBank SME Banking App
- The launch of wealth management educational campaigns, including the NextGen Academy
- Significant user growths for UBX’s platforms SeekCap, Bux, and Sentro
- Significant increase in its customer base to almost 10 million to date, from just nearly 7 million as of end-2020
Aguda discussed UnionBank’s digital transformation journey from 2022 up to 2021.
“Even before the pandemic, UnionBank already had this forward-looking view that digital is the way for us to move forward, and when the pandemic hit, not only did we survive, but I’m happy to say that the Bank actually thrived.”
De Vera shared more details about Union Digital and its aim to deliver banking and financial services to underserved sectors.
“While UnionDigital aims to empower the country’s digital economy, we also aim to elevate it by bringing trust and governance into the space. We embrace innovation like a fintech, but offer all the powers, experience, and track record of a fully regulated bank.”
Aside from their venture in NFTs, Aguda and de Vera also cited plans of introducing new solutions to helping workers in the thriving gig economy through EON and participating in the growing interest and opportunities relating to the metaverse.
