Canadian FinTech company propels financial inclusion at home, abroad

VANCOUVER -- Despite the recent drop in the world's unbanked population as a result of greater access to financial institutions and a growing number of mobile money service providers, an estimated two billion adults remain without access to a bank account. As a result, the World Bank has set an ambitious goal of achieving universal financial access by 2020.

To help achieve the goal, the World Bank is looking to credit card companies, banks and microcredit institutions to offer deeper, global access to basic banking. Yet, in Canada it is the FinTech industry leading the charge when it comes to developing new platforms and emerging technologies to help close the gap in financial inclusion.

One country plagued by some of the lowest financial access is the Philippines, where close to 70 per cent of adults are without a bank account, in part due to the minimums and fees associated with having an account. With an estimated $2 billion sent abroad from Canada to the Philippines annually, an inaccessible and fractured financial system poses inefficient and costly challenges.

As a result, Vancouver-based FinTech company, nTrust, has identified and developed a suite of services available through their cloud-based platform to provide those living in or sending money to the Philippines effective access to their funds, offering greater financial inclusion both at home and abroad. These services include:

• Prepaid cards: an essential method of both holding and instantly accessing funds for those without a traditional bank account or living abroad, nTrust's Cloud Money™ Prepaid MasterCard® can provide the unbanked population with a convenient means of moving and using their money both domestically and globally.

• Integration with third party platforms: by allowing upload and withdrawal through intermediary mobile wallets, such as Smart Money and Globe GCash, nTrust ensures money can move freely between services already trusted and used by millions locally to a centrally stored service that provides ubiquitous accessibility.

• Amalgamation of banking networks: integration with various bank networks, including BancNet and MegaLink allows users to stitch together the highly fragmented banking networks common in the Philippines, by uploading and distributing funds through one platform.

• Bill payments: the need to pay bills from abroad is one of the primary reasons for remittance from overseas. As such, the ability to pay and reconcile directly eliminates costly fees and helps control the money being sent home, ensuring it is managed correctly and spent properly.

Committed to furthering the development of partnerships and proprietary technology to help people around the world instantly move and access their money, nTrust is eager to continue to advance financial access through FinTech.