As Philippine banks race to strengthen fraud controls and expand digital lending, artificial intelligence is becoming central to both security and financial inclusion strategies. Trusting Social’s latest push into the country’s largest banks highlights how lenders are increasingly turning to AI-powered identity verification, alternative credit scoring, and biometric authentication to modernise onboarding while preparing for tighter anti-scam regulations.
Singapore-based financial technology firm Trusting Social AI Philippines Inc. has announced a strategic expansion targeting partnerships with the 10 largest banks in the Philippines. The initiative aims to deepen its local financial market footprint by deploying artificial intelligence-driven risk, credit scoring, and identity solutions. The fintech company has already onboarded over 50 institutions supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a portfolio that currently includes six of the country’s top 10 universal and commercial lenders.
While the firm maintains a significant local presence, full penetration among top-tier lenders remains a priority despite extended institutional procurement timelines. Alok Chaubrey, Chief Revenue Officer of Trusting Social Philippines, noted during a media roundtable that the bank sales cycle is lengthy, requiring numerous iterations across risk, product, information security, legal, and compliance stakeholders. Beyond major banks, the firm’s local client base spans approximately 15 non-bank financial institutions, three digital banks, and multiple online and cash-lending platforms.
The company’s broader strategy focuses on financial inclusion by leveraging alternative data and deploying AI to lower operational overhead for lenders. Johnny Escaler, Chief Executive Officer of Trusting Social Philippines, stated that reducing the cost to serve allows financial institutions to deliver tailored products to an estimated 25 million Filipinos who still rely on basic feature phones, including underserved segments like farmers and plantation workers. This expansion push coincides with a looming June 30, 2026, regulatory deadline mandated by the BSP under the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act, which requires all supervised banks to implement automated fraud management systems.
To help banks meet these mandates, Trusting Social is marketing its biometric infrastructure as a more secure, cost-effective alternative to traditional one-time passwords (OTPs), which are increasingly vulnerable to intercept scams and phishing. The platform utilises a process called vectorisation, which converts raw facial data into mathematical hashes to protect consumer privacy while enabling rapid authentication.
Chaubrey emphasised that this machine-driven approach enables the technology to detect sophisticated digital threats that humans cannot, including deepfakes, synthetic IDs, face-swapping, and 3D spoofing attacks. To scale its market reach further, Trusting Social is also exploring partnerships with government-owned financial corporations, including the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines.
What this means for the industry
- Philippine banks are accelerating AI adoption beyond customer service into fraud detection, credit scoring, and digital identity infrastructure.
- The BSP’s upcoming anti-scam regulations are pushing banks to invest more aggressively in biometric authentication and automated fraud management systems.
- Deepfake detection and synthetic identity prevention are quickly becoming major priorities for financial institutions across Southeast Asia.
- Fintech firms using alternative data and AI-driven underwriting are increasingly targeting underserved and underbanked populations across emerging markets.
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