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TALA transforms PH lending and mindset through financial literacy and customer-centric strategy

TALA transforms PH lending and mindset through financial literacy and customer-centric strategy

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Debts have always been a huge financial and emotional burden for the millions of underbanked Filipinos who either borrow from friends and family or the so-called “five-six” loan sharks. In the process, they risk damaging their relationships with their loved ones and/or have a hard time paying their creditors because of the exorbitant interest rates. Global fintech platform TALA breaks these chains of financial bondage through more user-friendly, data-driven solutions that make loans more flexible and return the power back to the customers or borrowers.

“Our mission is to empower the financially underserved using proprietary technologies and machine learning algorithms that encourage responsible borrowing while preventing over-indebtedness by enabling financial literacy,” TALA’s newly appointed CEO Donald Evangelista said. “TALA is revolutionizing the lending space by putting more power in the customer’s hands, while building a holistic financial ecosystem for the underserved communities.” 

One innovation, TALA Loans Your Way, is designed to respond to the unique financial obstacles that Filipino borrowers regularly encounter. TALA app users choose their loan due date according to their next payday cycle or other financial obligations, allowing them to repay with ease and confidence. The punctual payment of loans also increases a TALA app user’s credit score, allowing them to reapply for bigger loan amounts.

He gave an example, “The typical TALA customer is a working mom who's using credit to pay for household goods for her family or to support a small side hustle. Under typical loan products which have a fixed term, her repayment date would have fallen at an inconvenient time like in-between paychecks. Now with TALA, she can align her loan repayment at a more suitable time that works best for her.” 

TALA operates in Kenya, India, Mexico, and the Philippines, countries selected for their strong smartphone penetration, and the emerging middle class and underbanked customers’ demand for more efficient and accessible financial services.

To date, about 1.8 million Filipinos have been using TALA’s flexible financing services.   The online lending platform has also given credit access to more than 6 million people worldwide with over $2.7 billion in credit. Its pioneering use of alternative data, which recognizes the creditworthiness of a borrower in a way that traditional lending does or cannot, has resulted in a 90%+ global repayment rate and a 95% repeat customer rate.

Prior to assuming his TALA post, Evangelista was part of the APAC leadership team for Bain & Company, a premier global management consulting firm where he advised top financial services firms in Asia and ANZ regions. His expertise in the fields of Data Science, Customer Intelligence, Information Management, and Big Data places him at an opportune time to explore and expand a Filipino market transitioning to the digital space.

Evangelista revealed TALA’s future plans for expansion: “We're excited and anticipating the explosion of blockchain and crypto to provide the backbone of our infrastructure that can further elevate our mission of financial inclusion.  We foresee this as an enabler for TALA to provide more financial services to our existing customers at lower fees with higher returns for them. We’re taking the expertise we’ve built through the years to offer  more products and services to more underbanked customers in our current and future markets.”

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