Tonik Founder Greg Krasnov to joins as a panelist for Asian Banking and Finance Forum

The Philippines’ first digital bank sets an example for driving financial inclusion and reshaping the banking landscape in the region.

Tonik founder, Greg Krasnov, is set to share insights on how Tonik plans to change Asian banking with digital innovations in the upcoming Asian Banking and Finance Forum.

Krasnov will share how the company is leading the charge in reshaping the region’s banking landscape and driving financial inclusion.

With digital technology and fintech companies rapidly transforming the Asian banking industry, Tonik stands out as a pioneering force. The bank’s innovative approach to financial services addresses critical challenges in emerging markets, such as financial inclusion and credit availability.

At the forum, Krasnov will provide unique insights into the digital banking space, drawing from the bank’s success as the first digital bank licensed by the Central Bank of the Philippines.

Since his expertise lies in financial inclusion, particularly in tackling the challenge of credit access in many emerging markets, the Tonik executive will delve on how digital banks are gaining significant market share from non-digital legacy banks, especially in under-serviced markets.

In the Philippines, where less than 10% of the population has access to bank credit and less than 30% holds bank accounts, Tonik has introduced several groundbreaking initiatives to address this under-service.

Tonik’s approach involves leveraging retail deposits as a funding source for its loan products, enabling the bank to provide credit solutions to Filipinos who have been overlooked by traditional banking services.

“For us, it’s about marrying the technology company DNA with the banking approaches on compliance, redundancy, and risk management. This allowed us to scale aggressively into the vast untapped market of consumers who were not being served by traditional banking services,” said Krasnov.

As a fully licensed bank, Tonik has access to retail deposits as a funding source to finance its loan products, enabling it to tackle the credit under-service that has been persistent in the Philippines for years.

“Financial and credit inclusion require scalability of liabilities, processes, and strict compliance. Fintechs need to think in new ways about their compliance, whilst legacy banks must adopt new approaches to credit assessment, particularly for customers with no prior credit history,” he said.

In the increasingly competitive market, Tonik has successfully stayed ahead by catering to the digitally savvy Filipino population and delivering the solutions they demand.

The bank has innovated across the entire value chain, from customer acquisition and risk assessment to processing and financing.

With Tonik’s story brought to the table at the Asian Banking and Finance Forum, Krasnov’s address promises to offer valuable insights to both fintech companies and legacy banks.

Fintechs will learn how to innovate effectively within the banking space, considering compliance, security, and scalability, whilst legacy banks will gain insights into digital innovation to better serve customers and assess creditworthiness through alternative data and AI-driven approaches.