Consumer finance startup BillEase has announced its official integration with QRPh, allowing users to seamlessly pay for online and offline purchases.
QRPh is the QR code standard of the Philippines fashioned after the Europay-Mastercard-Visa (EMV) global benchmark for secure financial transactions.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been pushing for the modernization of retail payment systems. BSP now mandates payment service providers to adopt QRPh.
This new BillEase feature was enabled through a partnership with Asia United Bank (AUB). It expands the payment options for customers, allowing them to transact at any QRPh-accepting merchant while enjoying the benefits of BillEase’s installment plans.
“We’re thrilled to finally bring QRPh to our customers, unlocking more opportunities for them to conveniently scan and pay wherever QRPh is accepted,” said Kurt Molina, BillEase’s Head of Merchant Products.
On the merchant side, the integration allows them to tap into a wider customer base that favors digital payments, Molina added.
Ivan Grytsenko, vice president for POS Business at BillEase said the startup’s QRPh integration opens the door to all merchants.
“Clients can finance anything, from small daily needs with 0% overpayment, to improving life quality purchases with flexible installments,” he said.
BillEase is the first credit-focused fintech in the Philippines to integrate with Alipay+, enabling customers to use BillEase with global merchants such as popular travel booking site Agoda.
Last month, Billease announced raising $5 million from Saison Investment, expanding its credit facility to about $40 million.
The startup said the investment will be used to further grow BillEase’s loan portfolio and launch credit products tailored to its over 1 million users.
Launched in 2017, BillEase is an on-demand credit and finance platform that provides different types of financial services, including personal loans, e-wallet top-ups, prepaid load, and gaming credits.
It also offers BNPL for customers wanting installment plans for their purchases and leverages machine learning and AI in building financial products while mixing traditional global best practices in credit underwriting to meet the needs of the underbanked market segment.